The only place in the village unaffected by the turmoil was Branch's underground bunker, where Floyd poured himself a bowl of Lonely Night In® sugar cereal with frowny face and broken heart marshmallows and turned on the TV to watch his favorite Troll-e-novela, Maldito sin Amor.

“Ay, why won't you love me, Alejandro?!"

“She could do so much better," Floyd muttered as he took a bite of his cereal... only to spit it out in disgust. Realizing the milk was spoiled, he rode the elevator up to get some more. Only when he stepped outside did he hear Trolls screaming and realized something was horribly wrong.

After seeing Willow get struck down, Rhonda aggressively bit the Mount Rageon in the leg, but he just kicked her into a tree and she whimpered in pain.

“Hey! No one messes with Rhonda!" John Dory shouted, storming towards the attacker with Hope stuffed in his hair.

“John, wait!" Bruce warned, but the Rageon had already noticed him and prepared another energy blast, only for a sticky hand to hit him in the face. With his head turned, Bruce dragged John Dory into a bush and took Hope out to calm her down again.

“Who threw this thing at me?!" shouted the Rageon to a group of Trolls. None of them saw who threw it, and Clay, the Troll who did, just sighed in relief knowing his brothers and niece were safe.

Viva and Synth, meanwhile, were taking shelter in a secluded grotto behind a great waterfall. Since Synth had water powers, it was the best place to go in case he needed to defend himself.

“Synth, who is that guy?!" Viva asked. “Why did he try to kidnap you?!"

“The answers to those questions are ‘I don't know,' and ‘I have a hunch,'" Synth answered. “And if I'm correct... I need you to stay back."

“Wait, what?"

“There are things you don't know about me, Viva," Synth tried to explain. “Things nobody should know. All I can say is... Look out!"

Viva turned to find the Rageon on the other side of the waterfall holding his hand out, preparing to blast at them. Synth pushed Viva aside and attempted to use his water powers to make a thick wet shield, but it just cooled off and hardened into a marble-sized pellet and splashed through the water and slammed into his chest! Synth's back slammed against the cave wall and he yelped in pain.

“Hey, you can't attack my Synthie!" Viva shouted, and jumped up to his face, but he just clenched his fingers around her body, crushing several bones, and threw her back into the grotto!

“Vivita..." Synth whimpered, feeling a few of his own ribs had broken. All he could do was watch helplessly as she sobbed in agony.

“Hey, what's going on?!" the Rageon heard someone shout. He turned his head to find Floyd and stomped towards him. Floyd immediately took this as his cue to run.

“Am I dead? Is this heaven?" Willow groaned as she noticed two figures pulling her out of the rubble. “Are you angels?"

“We got you, Will!" John Dory said as Bruce helped her back up.

“I can wait," Willow mumbled, and noticed the Rageon. Cracking her neck, she used her telekinesis to pick up every grain of sand she could sense in the village, even in the playground sandboxes.

“Hey!" a little girl shouted angrily as her sandcastle was ruined.

“Synth! Synth, where are you?!" Trollex hollered as he ran through the panicked village. In the corner of his eye, he noticed a blue Pop Troll with white roots in his red hair trip on a rock, hyperventilating as the silver giant kneeled down and raised his fist.

Trollex immediately rushed over in between them in an attempt to shield Floyd... only for the Rageon to look up as he felt something hot and sharp impale his torso. Both Trollex and Floyd looked over to find Willow had melted and cooled the sand into a giant glass scimitar.

“That hurts!" he groaned in discomfort.

“What a pity," Willow growled, and clapped her hands to make the glass magically shatter into dust. The Rageon collapsed as glowing golden blood poured out from his torso. “Any other casualties?!"

“Grotto..." Floyd gasped. As Willow took off, Trollex turned his attention to him.

“You okay, man?" he asked in concern. Floyd just barely found the strength to sit up. Trollex decided this would be a good time for breathing exercises. “Just close one nostril. Breathe in. Hold. And let it out. Now the other one. Breathe in. Hold. Out."

John Dory and Bruce ran up to find Trollex successfully calming down their little brother, who shyly tucked his bangs back. This was always a sign that he liked someone.

“Thanks, I... I needed that," Floyd muttered. Trollex just looked away in an attempt to hold back a blush.

That very moment, Willow flew into the grotto to find Viva and Synth lying on the cave floor, both wildly injured. Since Viva appeared more critical, she flew down to her first. Willow cast a healing spell in Viperese, the ancient language of the Rattlecobras, and every bone in Viva's body was healed in a heartbeat. But when Willow did the exact same thing for Synth...

“NO!" Viva screeched as Synth yelled and writhed in agony. Willow shook in confusion and distress as she noticed John Dory, Bruce, Floyd, and King Trollex storm in.

“All I did was cast a healing spell!" she insisted, not knowing what she did wrong.

“Undo it! Now!" Bruce ordered, and Willow cast a counter spell. Synth's muscles loosened as he took a few short breaths.

“Synth, honey, look at me, I'm right here!" Viva muttered as Synth's big pink eyes began to close. “Don't you dare close those eyes!"

“Viva... I need to..." Synth breathed out, but he slipped out of consciousness before he could tell her how he felt.

“Synth?! Synth!"

Outside, Clay examined the damage. Fortunately, no one else appeared to be harmed. However, he did notice the Mount Rageon weakly flying away, despite having been stabbed.

“Aw, fudge," he groaned.

“What now?!" Willow asked frantically. “Synth needs help!"

“We'll get him help," Bruce assured her and the others as he carried the purple Techno Troll's body out of the grotto, while Synth's life began to flash through his brain as a series of painful memories.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

Injections. Surgeries. Implants. The purple baby had felt nothing but pain since the second he hatched out the egg. At just ten minutes old, he had already been through an entire universe of hurt. The first faces he saw were not of his parents or anyone else who looked like him, but three towering figures. Two completely white with no pupils in their soulless eyes and machinery implanted in their heads, and one with pitch black skin and blood red eyes.

“Stitch him up and transfer him in with the rest of the Elemental Class," the man with the red eyes ordered, and the baby Synth was picked up by his thick pink hair and tossed into a small holding cell made up of a very thick glass and had tiny air holes, so unless he stayed in the extremely shallow water, it was hard for him to breathe.

In the cell next to him, he noticed a bright orange glow approaching him. It felt hotter the closer it came. Synth wanted to back away, but he was in too much pain. Once it was close enough, the glow receded to reveal an orange glittery Pop Troll toddler with a mole above her left eyebrow and her short hair set ablaze.

“Hewwo," she greeted sweetly, taking Synth aback. “Ain't you a cutie?"

“Oi, look! It's a new guy!" another kid said, sitting on the embers in the same cell as the fiery Troll. His pointy teeth looked more like gems and his skin resembled soil as a few grass and leaves were sprouting from the top of his head. “What kind of thing are you? I can see your heart beating through your chest."

Synth just looked down and saw a green light flashing from inside his chest. He, then, noticed something that looked less like a Troll and more like a tiny cloud floating and spinning towards him.

“Heart. Eyes. Face. Mouth," she observed curiously. “Does it words?"

“It's okay, friend," the fiery tot tried to assure Synth. “They won'ts hurts you."

Synth, however, was far less afraid of them hurting him than he was miserable from the excruciating pain he was already feeling.

“H.... H.... Hurts..." he finally cried out, letting them know he was already suffering. The fire kid just shook her head and carefully pulled a leaf off her cellmate's head, quickly reaching her hand through a hole in the wall so she could dip it in water before burning it.

“Ouchie," she muttered in slight discomfort, and gently placed the leaf on the back of Synth's head, cleaning up a few drops of blood. “It's okay. You're with us now. You'll be okay."

Yeah, I'm sure quite a bit of you can see where this is going 😬. (unless you know nothing about Marvel)