"Are you sure about this?" I asked, glancing at Showman for a moment.

"Sure," he answered with a shrug. "It's going to be fine. Probably. Or at least, it's nothing that would be a serious risk to you."

"Oh, well if that's all," I drawled. The face on his screen mask rolled its eyes. "But seriously though," I tried again. "What happened since I last saw you?"

"Stuff. Things." He answered vaguely, not for the first time.

"Yeah," Whiplash said, inserting herself into the conversation. "Maybe not the best conversation topic for now, you know, powers and all."

I shook my head. "I guess. Either way, I'm giving you four the benefit of the doubt. And only because I sort of know him," I pointed a hoof at Showman. Honestly, more out of the fact that the Greg I knew before tried to be kind when he could, and I couldn't imagine he was that far away from that. "Don't make me regret it. You won't like where that leads."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Showman answered dryly. Suddenly, the projected face he wore brightened and several pink lights around his suit turned on as he straightened up. "Alright dearies, let's do this thing!"

I looked at the other three and raised an eyebrow. "He do this a lot?" I asked.

"Eh, more or less," Quantumlock responded with a bored shrug.

Showman strode forward, leading the way into a largely burned out building they had taken me too. It was only a few blocks away from where we had first met up, giving him a chance to explain the situation in more detail to me. Though, I was only really half listening as I spent most of my time balking at the fact it was fricken Greg! That was… easily the strangest thing to happen since I became a magic cartoon unicorn pegasus. I felt like that said more about Greg than it did me.

He and Vibrasonic moved to led the way, with Quantumlock and Whiplash walking behind me as we continued to walk into the building. The inside was far more intact than the outside seemed to be, with the charring seeming to end at the windows and the inside being relatively untouched. That was curious to me, as buildings on the far side of the burned section of the city had been burned by the spreading fire from the Behemoth fight. The houses closer to the edge were completely flattened by a number of factors. But this building seemed to fall into a strange middle ground where the outside got flash fried as the flame sucked the oxygen out of the air, leaving the inside more or less intact as the flames snuffed themselves out.

The place seemed to have been a small office building or something like it. Showman lead us past a reception area and down a different hallway before getting to a large conference room, with Quantumlock standing outside the door.

"How did you-" I began, looking back to where Quantumlock had been standing behind me.

"Took a shortcut," he answered, turning to the side and holding the door open for me. Neither Vibrasonic or Showman seemed to be surprised by this, so I just rolled with it. There were stranger things, like Greg.

Showman walked into the room first. I could hear him playing some sort of song very faintly for effect.

"Why, hello everyone," he said to the people inside. "Guess who I brought?" I took that as my cue. Wait, since when did I start taking cue? I shook my head, if I thought about this too hard it was going to give me a headache.

Walking inside, I saw that every criminal that still mattered was either sitting or standing around the table. Lung was standing with his arms crossed as his little insane creature on all fours next to him, his creepy smile leering at everyone. Coil sat at the table calmly with three armed mercenaries. A Merchant cape I barely recognized as Whirlygig was lounging back with two other capes there with her. I saw there were two independents I recalled as barely C-list villains. Faultline was here, along with some out of town group I recognized from somewhere. What was their name? The Jaws? The Teeth?

And of course, there wasn't any Empire representation to speak of.

"Nova," Coil began amicably. "Glad you could join us."

"I'm not sure why," I answered suspiciously as I walked to the end of the conference table.

"Agreed," Lung growled from the other end. I glanced at him briefly and found him staring at me tensely.

"Well, it's quite simple," Coil answered. "We find ourselves in something of an existential crisis."

"Explain," I stated. The sooner this was over the better. Coil nodded and steepled his fingers together as he began to explain.

"With the Empire almost completely destroyed after the Endbringer fights, vast amounts of the city is left up for claim. Normally, myself and the ABB would be the two largest contenders for this territory. But with the Merchants turning over a new leaf recently and trying to extend their influence, they too will be making a bid for this opportunity. The Teeth also play into the equation. But all in all, this would be a zero-sum gang war for the lot of us.

"The ABB is built on the back of normal people with Lung's power backing them up," Coil continued, leaning forward. "My situation is rather similar. If it were just us, it would be a city-wide firefight. Something on a scale that hasn't been seen since cape gangs came into existence. Factor in The Merchants and The Teeth and what Lung will have to do to fight them off after having lost Oni Lee, and massive cape battles are guaranteed as well. A fight would be very bloody and very destructive. And seeing how we managed to get out of the largest Endbringer battle in history with the smallest amount of property damage and death count, it would be a real disappointment if we devolved into that. Add in the fact how weakened we would all be and your own presence in the city and it's a guarantee that we would lose more than we gained from both the heroes and you attacking us. Leaving us with only one real option.

"Peacefully agree to split up the city," he finished. I looked around at the others around the table. Lung nodded seriously to me and the cape representing The Teeth gave a sour agreement. Whirlygig was unreadable as she was.

"And where do I factor into this," I asked, turning back towards Coil.

"The Enforcer," he stated. "In normal life, it takes some pretty extraordinary circumstances for different villain groups to agree to work together for any period of time, particularly when so much lucrative opportunity is available. There needs to be a third party, someone with considerable power that doesn't quite fit into hero or villain that can keep the peace and enforce the terms of the agreement. And if recent events are anything to go by, you aren't quite a hero anymore."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "What do you know about that?"

"The city knows you thrashed the Triumvirate," Lung stated suddenly. "You went in, took whatever it was you wanted, and left. Leaving the PRT unsure of what to do next. Very hard to do, very dangerous game."

"True," Coil said with a nod. "But not completely unwelcome. Before you did this, Team Vigil and other independents were the only ones that truly fit what we needed, but none of them measures up to your power. And thus we can ensure a much stronger peace."

"So what you want from me," I began slowly, "is for me to allow you villains and criminals to take over the city after having just gotten rid one of The Empire. On top of that, you want me to help protect your claims to the city."

"A lot of people could die otherwise," Coil stated passively. I took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. What he was describing was a lose-lose situation for me. Either I do this, assist villains in an effort to protect people from a massive gang war or let it it happen. But if I help them get control, what happens after that? What happens when the Merchants are able to flood more parts of the city with drugs? What is Lung going to do with this much more power and assets without the Empire to keep him and his gang in check? And Coil? There was any direction he could go. Not to mention what would happen if The Teeth came back to the city. And would that make me responsible for those lives ruined because of it?

Yeah, probably.

I took a deep breath and thought about it for the moment. And the more I thought about it the more I hated the place I was being put in. Then I realized, maybe I was being put here intentionally.

For all the logic Coil might have had for making me the power that catalyzes the peace agreement between them, it also pust the future of the city on firmly me and far away from them. And no matter what choice I make, it ends badly for a people. There was a tiny Will in my head shouting about how my name would get dragged through the mud in the public eye. Along with tiny Cheshire telling me I could use this to my advantage. But… I wasn't smart enough to think of a way to do that. I could purposely sabotage one group, let everyone else have a piece of the city and deny either The Teeth or Merchants. But that would only partially solve the problem.

In my mind, there was only one thing I could think of that might work. One thing that could possibly come to a good conclusion when all other paths don't.

I could lie.

I took a deep breath and steeled myself. This wasn't going to be pretty.

"Show me what you had in mind."

"Excellent," Coil stated, pulling out a map.