Golden Shield

Sirens wailed through the canyons of shattered glass and bent steel as Golden Shield tumbled out of the smoke-choked sky. Only an hour ago she had been soaring above the skyline, bright as her name, but now her once-gleaming uniform was scuffed and torn, her blonde hair hanging loose and dusted gray with ash. Below her, whole blocks looked as though a giant had stepped on them—cars flipped like toys, storefronts blown open, and a crane lying sideways across the street. She struck the edge of a rooftop hard, rolled twice across gravel and broken tiles, and came to a stop on her hands and knees beside a battered ventilation unit. Every breath burned, every muscle protested, but she forced herself upright, lifting her shield again as the shadow of the villain drifted down through the smoke. The wind whipped around the rooftop as the figure descended, framed by the orange glow of distant fires and the distant thrum of helicopters circling the devastation. Golden Shield’s knuckles tightened on the rim of her dented shield, though her arm trembled from the fight that had already leveled half the district.