"What are you wearing?" Batman asked.

Jean Paul looked at himself then smiled. "Sorry, I had class."

Batman said nothing in response.

"Your man said you needed help."

"Yes."

"Well . . . What's wrong?"

"I . . . I was recently involved in a case that included raving fanatics, a naked cyborg with sickles for hands and several severe injuries."

"Sounds like a party."

"Mm. Paul . . . I need your help. I'm going to be on the sidelines for a while."

"Me? You want me to fill in for you?"

"You pick up fast. That's good."

Jean Paul couldn't believe he was hearing this. He was about to burst with fear, tension and glee all at once.

"So what do I have to do? Do I get to go to a JLA meeting?"

"No . . . they can live without me for a while. You may not even being doing anything though I doubt Gotham can remain that peaceful. All I want is someone on hand if Gordon calls. A ghost, if you will."

"I . . . I'd be glad to help, Batman."

The door that led into Wayne Manor cracked open, Alfred Pennyworth poked his head in. Batman and Jean Paul watched him expectantly.

"The signal, sir."

Batman nodded then turned his gaze back to Jean Paul.

"Looks like you have good timing," he said as he pointed towards the armory. "Go get dressed."

Jean Paul made a point not to run as he followed Batman's orders. Batman, meanwhile, hit a key on his computer console.

"Shilo?"

"Yeah?" the boy's voice said back.

"Meet me at GCPD headquarters."

"Right."

Now he would see if his new Robin was half as good as he seemed.

"Commissioner," a deep, gravely voice said from behind him. He jumped.

"Oh, you're here."

"Sorry about the delay . . . "

Gordon scrutinized him. "You're not him."

"That's what I said!" Robin shouted triumphantly.

"Quiet, Robin," Batman said. "No, sir. I'm not him. He was hurt and I'm filling in."

"Ah. Well, I hope you're up to this," Gordon said as he took his pipe out of his mouth. He handed Batman a file.

"Her name is Cheyenne Reynolds," Gordon said. "She's a fourteen year old mutant. We think."

"What do you mean, 'you think'?" Robin asked.

"On her birthday two days ago she started exhibiting abilities. Paranormal abilities."

"Sounds like a mutant to me," Batman said.

"Yes, but I'm not finished. Her house and a good percent of her neighbors houses have been encased in what seems to be a force field of blood. We've sent men inside, it's permeable, but they haven't come out."

Jean Paul gulped.

"So, as it stands, we're not sure what's going on or what to do. I really wish you were him."

"We'll take care of it, Commissioner," Batman said, a little put off by the last remark. The Bat had faith in him but he was either going to have to prove himself or learn how to do a better impersonation if he wanted anyone else to.

"The address of her house is inside," Gordon said. "Bullock's already there."

"Wonderful," Robin said.

"Fine. Let's go."

"Bullock," Batman said, hoping he was talking to the right person.

"Bats, ‘bout time you got here."

"What've you done, Bullock?" Robin asked.

"Ain't done anything since Moore and Dickerson went inside and decided to take up residence," Bullock said. He hated talking to these kids Batman toted around.

"We talked to Gordon," Batman said.

"Yeah, I figured. Well, what are you standing around here for? Get to work, Bats."

Well, there's one person who believes me, Jean Paul thought. I couldn't ask for a better fan.

"Did you hear that, Robin?"

"No, I missed it," Robin said sarcastically.

"So I'm not crazy . . . Good to know," Batman said as he led the way up the blood soaked sidewalk to the slippery stairs then raised his hand to knock on the oozing door. It flew open and the two of them fell inside before he had a chance to hit it.

"You were really going to knock," Robin said incredulously as he lay sprawled out on the floor.

"You have to help us," a woman, Allison Reynolds, said as she helped Batman to his feet. "My husband . . . I think he's dying."

"She won't let me die . . . " he said to no one.

"Well, this is officially weird," Robin said. He poked Tom in the arm with a broom handle before Batman swatted it away.

"Where is she?" Batman asked Allison.

"Up . . . upstairs. Please don't let her hurt me."

"We're not. I promise."

"You think we should go in there?" Robin asked as he inspected the splintered wood. "This wasn't done by any police battering ram."

"I don't think we have a choice," Batman said as living blood squirmed out from beneath the door and began to wrap around them.

"Holy crap, Batman!" Robin yelled as they tried to pull away. He was silenced as the blood pulled them through the thin walls of the house.

"We're here to help," Batman said.

The closet door, oozing with more blood than the front door was, transformed itself into a screaming, inhuman face. "Help! You lie!"

"Uh . . . Batman . . . " Robin said as the many stuffed animals were soaked in the living blood and began to stalk towards them, looking anything but happy.

"I see them," he said. "They're plush. What can they do?"

Suddenly each stuffed animal was carrying a steaming blood poker.

"They can probably hurt us."

"Cheyenne!" Batman yelled.

"That's not my name!" the voice boomed. They both dropped to the floor, at the mercy of the maniacal teddy bears and neon rabbits.

"We're going to fight stuffed animals," Robin said. "This job is never dull."

With the stuffed animals ripped into little more than cotton a few minutes later the room had begun to fill up with blood, it swam around them, threatening to floor the room. Blood dripped from the ceiling and froze in razor sharp daggers.

"I'm going in there," Batman said, referring to the closet.

"Are you crazy?! She's in there!"

"Do we really have any other choice?"

Robin conceded but silently thought to himself that Bruce would've.

"Cheyenne! I'm coming in!" Batman called. In response the blood face on the closet door grew huge fists. Robin watched in amazement at Jean Paul's subconscious programming kicked in. He had never seen anyone fight blood before. Or as viciously.

"Cheyenne!" Batman screamed as he kicked the door in. "Enough!"

"It's not enough!" Her huge voice screamed. She began to rip at him, tearing open his body as he came closer. "Leave me alone!!!"

Batman struggled forward. He was getting angry. Someone needed to discipline this ignorant child.

"Stop!" he yelled as he picked up the young girl. He shook her, pounding her head against the wall. Her robe and rags fell away.

Batman was shocked. Her face was covered in cuts and bruises, her wrists had scars from attempted suicides, her arms were covered in cigarette burns. She sneered viciously at him when he looked at her.

"This is there fault! You're one of them! You came to help them! I want you to die!!!!"

The officers on the walls came at them. Robin popped open his staff and began to fight them off as gently as possible.

"Who did this to you?" Batman nearly whispered.

Cheyenne said nothing as she dug her ragged nails into his face, the mask protecting his eyes from being gouged out. She wanted his blood.

"Stop!" he screamed as she toppled him.

"Batman!" Robin called. The cops were tougher than they looked. He was backed into a corner. "I need a little help over here!"

"Handle it yourself, kid!" Batman roared as he popped Cheyenne in the chin and sent her flailing back across the room.

"I'm trying to help you!" he screamed. "Tell me who did this and I'll make sure they pay!"

"You're just like all the rest!"

"No," he said. "I'm nothing like them."

She believed him. There was something in his eyes that she knew from her own reflection. A tiredness. He had been used like she had. Not the same way, never the same way, but he understood as well as anyone ever would.

"I want to kill them," she said.

"I know you do."

"Can I? Will you let me?"

Jean Paul was torn. He looked at the girl. She was bruised and battered. He understood now why her father was hung on the kitchen ceiling and it made him want the scum's blood on his hands. Could he say yes? He could. Azrael could. Batman couldn't.

"I can't. I want to too but I can't let you. If you kill them, they'll win."

Cheyenne closed her eyes, she looked like she was going to cry. The room began to dry up as the blood returned to her victims bodies. Her mother, who wasn't aware of the fact her veins had been bled dry and her daughter's will was the only thing animating her, had a heart attack at the massive amount of blood flowing back into her body. She put her father's skin back on him then filled his brain with his missing blood. Aneurism. Dead in seconds. The cops suddenly fell to the ground unconscious from Robin's attacks but essentially unharmed.

"It's done," Cheyenne said. "They'll never hurt me again."

Robin watched him.

"What?"

"The parents . . . The mother had a heart attack and the father's brain practically exploded. I thought you were going to save them!"

"It's not my fault they're dead. I can't control their bodies."

"You don't have to defend me, Batman," Cheyenne said as she came outside. "I killed them, officer. I killed them and I'm glad they're dead."

Bullock looked the girl over.

"Did they . . . ?"

"Yes," Cheyenne said, holding out her hands for Bullock to handcuff her. "But they never will again."

"I . . . I'm not sure what to do here, Bats."

"I want to go," Cheyenne said. "I don't ever want to see this house again. Please take me away."

"I . . . You didn't do anything."

"I killed them. I killed Allison and Tom Reynolds and I bathed in their blood. Isn't that enough?"

"Bats?"

They were gone.

"About what?"

"The Reynolds . . . How the girl killed them."

"Oh . . . Fair is fair."