The Broken Crown

The wind howled through the crater like a ghost mourning the fallen.

The once-proud center of the city lay in ruin. Buildings,gone. Roads, cracked open like wounds. Ash painted the skies gray.

Smoke curled from the broken earth as helicopters descended, slicing the silence. The insignia of The Legion glinted faintly on their hulls.

Legion doctors and scientists in silver suits rushed out, their boots crunching over glass and dust.

They moved fast.

Inferno.

Face bruised, body limp, still warm.

Bubble Boy.

Blood on his lips. Barely breathing. His uniform torn to shreds.

Eden.

Half-buried in rubble, eyes shut, red bubbles flickering around him protectively.

Gladiator. Bolt. Psion. Umbra. Construct. Seaman. Garden Girl. Void.

All broken. Scattered across the battlefield like fallen chess pieces.

And then two black body bags.

They zipped them up gently.

Mr. Mars. Zeus.

Dead.

No words were spoken. Only silence.