"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" I shouted. I waited a few seconds, just long enough for Kunzite to look straight at me, and throw up his hand.

Sight.

Aim.

Breathing.

Trigger Squeeze.

EYES SHUT.

Even with my eyes closed, I saw the sun.

[...]

It seemed like time stopped for a moment, a blinding flash of light like looking at the sun at noon, even through the lids of my eyes. I could feel heat on the entire front of my body as matter and antimatter annihilated, releasing the purest energy known to science. The air, I imagine, superheated in almost an instant, expanding with the force of a bomb.

The concussion that it created hit about a quarter of a second later. And at this range, it practically knocked me over. Things seemed to return to normal speed as my ears protested the loudest noise they've yet handled in this mess.

Opening my eyes, and trying my best to blink away the red and green dots in my vision, I attempted to survey the damage. I couldn't really see well, but where I had fired my round looked like a wall of black smoke and dust rising quickly away from the surface.

If people didn't know there was a fight going on down town, they sure did now. I mean… MAN! The test shot the other day had given me a good feel for how much power the rounds had. But in that wide-open field I just didn't have any context for scale. But now, surrounded by buildings, I started to get an idea of just how tightly I'd managed to pack that shot. Any more narrow a space and I'd have risked taking out portions of whichever buildings had been closest.

Hell, even now I noticed windows across from me peeking through the smoke were missing.