They started letting people into the city slowly, carefully watching our tree as they did so. Alexandria flew near our tree once but quickly left when Amy had the branches of the tree move back to reveal me standing just behind them. The message was clear. Don't come close, don't bother us, don't ask us anything.

As people came into the city they were unsurprisingly surprised to find a massive crystal tree had its roots all over the place. To Amy's credit, most of them were underground and under the streets, but quite a few had also broken through the surface and into buildings. Nothing that would make someone lose their home, but they might have to deal with a tree root going through their kitchen window now.

Speaking of the tree, I was incredibly impressed with what Panacea managed to do with it. Near the base of the massive tree was an enormous door that at the very least needed Lisa's pseudo Brute strength to open. Plus a secret door for Aisha and Dad for whenever they wanted to come and go without getting someone to open the door.

That front door opened up into a hallway that led to the main area, essentially a giant hollow cylinder with a ramp that spiraled its way upward until it reached the top of the tree. She put rooms all along that ramp, including bedrooms, bathrooms, and empty rooms for whatever else. I wasn't even going to ask how she got the bathrooms there.

It was still relatively early in the morning, meaning most people were still asleep as I descended through the tree house. I paused briefly outside Amy's room and briefly consider it. Well, I couldn't see any reason not to as I knew she was awake.

I knocked on her down lightly with a hoof and the door opened itself half a second later. I gave it something of a strange look before walking inside.

Amy's room was pretty small compared to the others. But what space there was to be had was mostly taken up by a large chair sitting in the centre of the floor. The chair was tilted back so Amy could lay in it as easily as she could sit in it. Currently, she was laying back it, staring at the ceiling blankly, her eyes glazed over.

"Amy?" I asked. No response. "Amy you there?" I prodded her with a hoof this time, causing her to blink. It took her a moment to realize what was going on before she rose out of her chair and rubbed her eyes.

"Everything okay?" I asked.

"Its fine, its fine," she murmured, shaking her head clear as she did so. "It's just, the tree goes over the whole city. That's a lot of information for me to sort through enough when you don't include The Heart."

"What is going on with The Heart?" I asked curiously. Amy pressed a hand to her face and shook her head again.

"I wish I knew. When things were just magic circuits I didn't really understand how they worked, but I recognized what they were and moved them around accordingly. But this tree is a magic circuit, probably more magic than tree. And it's doing… something with The Heart. It feels like wavelengths are bouncing between them in some strange way is it's… really, really confusing."

"You're feeling wavelengths?" That didn't really fit with anything I knew about her power.

"I don't… know? There isn't a line anymore between what is biology and what is this weird metaphysical magic. My own power has been going back and forth on what I can and can't manipulate because even it doesn't know what the heck is happening anymore. Every time I reach into the tree I feel like I'm controlling more of its magic instead of its biology. And when I look towards the Crystal Heart I can feel it emit a pulse, which the tree sends back slightly differently. It's like… I don't know, learning from each other."

"Can we still remove it?" I asked. Amy shrugged.

"Yes, I only had the tree encase The Heart so no one tried to mess with it. They're both still completely independent of each other, as far as I could tell."

"Well, that's good," I said with a nod. After a minute of silence, I said, "I'm going to be heading out soon. You want to come with us?" I saw her considering it for a few moments, tossing it over in her mind. A dark look passed over her face and she flinched inwardly, a movement small enough someone else might have missed it. After a minute, she shook her head and sighed.

"No, I really need to do more work on the tree. I've almost got several rooms ready to grow the plants you'll need for potions and stuff. Not to mention, the way the roots are spread out across the city gave me an idea."

"What's that?"

"A network of sensitive roots so I can see what is going on everywhere. It could be an amazing early alert system for us. Or depending on where, I could just trap criminals and lesser villains in the roots."

"I could see how that could be useful," I said with a nod. "I guess I'll leave you to it then." Amy nodded absent and immediately laid back in her chair again, her eyes glazing over a moment later. I turned to leave when something caught my eye.

It was her Flower Knight armour, but different. Instead of the wooden armour with decorative flowers, this was made of the crystal material of the tree. And on top of that, the design seemed more streamlined, and a little more feminine than the original had been despite the flowers it had.

Maybe she would be coming out with us eventually. I smiled.

As I left the room I decided to head out by myself and go over the city. By now I would expect the villains would be out in full doing what they do. Then again, I guess I was a villain now. The concept felt strange to me.

Looking around again to make sure no one had woken up while Amy and I had talked before taking a breath and teleporting.

The moment I was outside I flared out my wings and started gliding forward aimlessly, just taking in the city around me. The streets were busy, filled with people getting back to their houses and trying to get into shops that weren't open. I ignored them for the most part, only intervening when it looked like someone might try and force their way in. But even then all I really had to do was pull them away from the door or window and they would get the message and leave. I couldn't recall the last time it had ever been this easy.

I was distracted when I saw a massive green tentacle shot up in the air and waved at me before disappearing down to where it came from. Whiplash.

Curiously, I flew in that direction and saw all of Team Vigil stand on an empty street in the burnt out housing area from the Endbringer fight. I glanced back at the Crystal Tree, I had drifted further than I had wanted to. I definitely hadn't intended to go this close to the edge of the city.

Flying downward to see what they wanted, I noticed all of them had a motorcycle that matched their general colour scheme. Black for Quantumlock, pink for Showman, red and green for Whiplash, and blue for Vibrasonic. They didn't seem tense at all.

"Nova," Showman said, strangely serious. "Glad I caught you."

"Showman," I answered oddly. "You're not… explosively overdramatic."

"There is a time and place for it," he sighed. "And frankly, the act is really tiring after doing it for so long."

"Oh," I said, a little stunned. "So what's this about?" I looked between the other three. They didn't seem to care all that much for what was going on.

"You are, more or less." He shrugged. "According to the PRT, you broke into their headquarters and retrieved three villains before escaping."

"Those were my friends," I stated testly. He shrugged.

"Maybe, but the PRT doesn't care all that much. They've been preaching up and down about the legality of what you've done and what not. The usual bull."

"So they've made me a villain," I finished. Surprisingly, it was Whiplash who spoke up, marking the first time she had actually said something around me.

"Those bureaucratic morons would rather kill the entire Triumvirate before doing that." She moved away from her motorcycle with a sweep of her hands. "They've done everything but call you a villain. They called all your friends villains, they've called your tree unnerving, and they've called you incredibly powerful. Anything but outright stating you're a villain. Because honestly, if they did-"

"Hentia," Quantumlock interrupted boredly. "You're rambling. Again."

She blew a raspberry and him and said, "You're no fun."

Showman shook his head and sighed. "Well, that aside, she is right. They don't want to call a villain because, well, you hit one Endbringer with another Endbringer, among other things. That, and they're pretty sure there isn't going to be enough people wanting to fight you to for them to try and arrest you, which they would have to at least try if you were technically a villain."

"So what does that have to do you with guys," I asked, pointing a hoof at them. "And why did you call me here."

"Because whether or not you're a villain, you're not a hero. And that puts a lot of people on edge because before they could expect you to play ball with some of the rules. Now it's up in the air. Which is where we come in."

"What do you mean?" I asked suspiciously, glancing around.

"Instead of devolving into a gang war over the new territory that's opened with the Empire's collapse, the villains, vigilantes, and a few select independents pretending to be heroes are going to have a meeting." Showman explained. "We'll talk territory, rules going forward, the future basically. And as one of the few people you won't melt the face off of, we've been selected to invite you."

"So you want me to walk into a den of super villains and make deals with them?" I asked dryly, thoroughly disinterested in this plan.

Showman sighed. "I thought you might feel that way. But thankfully, I think I can convince you." He turned and looked at Vibrasonic and asked, "You're sure there is no one around here?" She nodded once. Showman nodded back and turned to look at me again. He raised a hand to his mask and slowly took it off.

I didn't recognize him for a minute, throwing me off that much more when I did.

"Greg?" I choked.