Tornado Girl crouched beside Salome and put her arm tenderly around the young girl. Speaking very softly, Tornado Girl said, "Why don't you come with us? It's all over now and there's nothing anyone can do."
Salome's swollen, tear-streaked eyes met Tornado Girl's with a desolate stare, and she answered, in a hoarse, pathetic voice, "They were my friends."
"Not anymore," Tornado Girl responded. "They're not anymore."
"I know, but I can't leave them, anyway," Salome said, fatalistically, and pulled herself away from Tornado Girl.
Stumbling up to them, the President said, in a loud voice, "There' s not a hell of a lot you can do, kid." Then he added, chuckling, "Unless you're a certified, factory-trained repairman."
Before them lay what was left of the Element Kings. Here and there limbs twitched nervously, as if searching for torsos that they missed. The Sea King's body was intact, but his face was completely gone and his head was little lore than a mass of scorched wires. He made wrenching motions in repeating spasms of agony. The Air King, with his head, upper torso and one hand intact, pointed in some direction and mouthed the same inaudible orders over and over again to his now-deaf companions. On the disembodied head of the Fire King twitched a smile tinged with terror, while the Earth Queen sat, unmoving, staring in shock at her own exposed metal skeleton.