As it turns out, Will wasn't quite right in his idea. While enchanting the jewelry had let me make some more complex items, they didn't give Lisa any ability to cast active magic. But I did discover that metal was better at holding a Lense. Combining a metal with a gem allowed me to make the gem a simple battery and the metal itself was the thing it powered.

Currently, I was working on something slightly more complex. Lisa had purchased a lot of gems with the money we had received, but one of the biggest was a large ruby gem. It had been cut thin to sit inside a piece jewelry, almost triangular but more stereotypical of a gem. I used a combination of the fire spell and my telekinesis to bend a grey metal around it before moving to enchant it.

My goal was to create something much more powerful than what I've experimented with before. With all the Lenses Lisa and I had discovered I would more or less program the metal with every Lens I could give it, make it more like a codex of spells. I would then place every energy increasing or efficiency affecting Lens on the gem itself. Hopefully, by making the metal capable of casting as many spells as possible and making the gem powerful this new amulet would be able to accomplish the idea Will had originally come up with. The idea of Lisa or Aisha able to cast magic alongside me sounded like an amazing concept. But every attempt before it had failed.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the front door. I looked up from the kitchen table where I had been working and realized the house was empty. Aisha and Lisa had left at some point, and my father was already gone. Which just left Will who was sitting on the couch with his Magic for Dummies book and a deck of cards he was practicing with. I got the impression he was studying a different kind of magic.

I walked across the room and answered the door, somewhat surprised when I saw Carol, Mark, and Amy standing outside.

"Good morning Taylor," Carol said with a somewhat cold tone in her voice. "We were wondering if we could talk."

"Uh, yes, of course," I answered oddly, stepping aside to let them in. "Er, Will?" I called. "Why don't you go downstairs for a bit."

Will looked up and blinked for a moment and shrugged. He stood up with a deck of cards in one hand. Except when he passed a hand over them they disappeared, giving him a free hand to pick up his book and disappear downstairs with a silly grin on his face.

Carol pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head.

"What, exactly, is he still doing here?" She asked. "And when do you plan on turning him in?"

"He is still here because pieces of The Sentient still exist," I answered curtly, "even if they aren't much of a problem anymore."

"You do realize that if anyone else were to find out about this you could be tried for kidnapping at best, and aiding a wanted felon at worst."

"I'm holding him in my custody as Nova," I stated seriously. "And he surrendered voluntarily before providing critical information that went into taking down The Sentient."

"Your custody?" Carol said with a raised eyebrow. "Because it looked like he was practicing magic tricks on your couch."

"Maybe we should talk about something else," Mark said suddenly. "Like the reason we came here today."

"Alright, I'm good with that," I said with a nod. Carol frowned but said nothing. The three of them took seats on my couch while I stood nearby. I was too large for most seats in the house.

"So first things first," Mark began. "We want you to take Amy with you wherever you go out from this moment going forward. It will help us all stay on the same page as each other."

"I'm okay with that," I said with a nod. I saw a slight smile cross Amy's face.

"Good," Mark said with a nod. "Then next would be that in two days the PRT will be hosting a celebration as they get reinstated in the city. Director Piggot will be returning, Alexandria will make an appearance, and as New Wave's most powerful cape we would like you to be there as well."

I quirked my mouth as I considered it. I still hadn't come to a decision on the PRT and what I was going to do. And while I doubted they were going to do anything to me if I went to this event, that wouldn't stop Piggot or Tagg from having a 'conversation' with me. And since I failed to retrieve Ergo and Biohazard, I'm sure they were going to have more pointed words with me.

But then again, I had Mark and Carol right in front of me. Maybe I had been thinking of this wrong? I didn't necessarily need to condemn the PRT outright to get them off my back. I just needed to make a buffer.

"About the PRT," I began, "They've been a little… pushy with me."

"What do you mean?" Mark asked. Carol gave me an odd look.

"I met with Director Tagg one night and he basically blackmailed me. Bringing up all the events of property damage and when the others and I stormed The Sentient's main base."

"That's ridiculous," Carol said immediately. "All of those things would be defensible in court."

"You said he blackmailed you," Mark said seriously. "What was he trying to get?"

"One of the new Wards, the ones that had all previously been criminals, stole some files from Cornucopia when we attack their headquarters. They wanted me to arrest him to avoid some of the negative PR or to shift it onto me, I'm not sure."

"Who?" Carol asked. "And did you get them?"

"Erg- Er, I mean Thusly and his sister Self-Made. And no, they managed to get away and they probably got out of the city."

"Hmm," Mark said, chewing on his thumbnail as he considered it. "That's troubling."

"But not an issue," Carol answered. "If anyone in the PRT tries to put these charges on you they'll be charging New Wave as well, and they don't want that."

"So you can help me with this?" I asked, not quite believing how well this was working.

"Yes," Carol responded immediately. "It wouldn't be the first time the PRT attempt to control or manipulated one of us. They tried it with Victoria as well, particularly as her property damage far exceeds what you've accomplished. Though, I'm not sure how long it will stay that way."

"Well, that's good to hear," I admitted. "Now about this party you want me to-"

I was cut off by the sound of Endbringer sirens going off. We all looked at each other and grimaced. I supposed all plans were going to have to wait.

Cheshire and Imp managed to get to the meeting before I had. Cheshire, strangely, was holding a heavy bag that clinked when it moved. I would have asked her about it, but there wasn't any time to as the meeting was started when Legend came into the room.

All the heroes and villains immediately turned to him. Lung was here, along with every Empire cape that was still standing. I didn't see Supesu, which bothered me slightly, but there were more important things.

"Everyone," Legend said, walking to the front of the long room we had all gathered in. "We have a problem. In one hour, the Simurgh will be over the city in two hours."

We all fell silent. Out of all of them, why did it have to be Simurgh? No matter what happens, you always lose.

"In approximately six hours," Legend continued, "The Leviathan will be here."

The shock of that statement spread through the crowd instantly, but before anyone could reasonably process that Legend put the final nail in the coffin.

"And in approximately eleven hours, the Behemoth will arrive."

I… don't know. The very idea of that was just… impossible to imagine. And I wasn't the only one, the room was filled with a silent awe of people not knowing what they were supposed to be feeling. Like they knew whatever emotion they were capable of showing wouldn't do the situation justice, so the only thing we felt was numb shock as our brains went into gridlock.

A small part of me wondered what sort of enchantment I could make with that kind of emotion.

"Currently, we are attempting a city-wide evacuation." Legend stated, a grim look on his face. "Judging by the speed of the Simurgh, we don't believe they're going to attack one at a time either. It is more than likely she is at least going to wait for the Leviathan, giving us more time to evacuate the city. But once they do attack, it is very unlikely that there is going to be much of a city left protect. I would suggest-"

"Wait," A voice called out. I look around and saw Cheshire walking forward and felt my eyes go wide. "I think I have a way to save the city from getting completely flattened."

"I don't believe I know you," Legend said slowly.

"Its Cheshire," she stated quickly.

"Well, Cheshire, if you think you have something, by all means," he waved his air widely. "Tell us. I'm sure we'll take anything at this point."

"Gladly," Cheshire said with a nod. "Imp, do it." As she said it, a small rock flew through the air and nearly struck her before hitting the protection enchantment I had given her. As the rock fell to the ground, Cheshire pulled out the little gemstone holding the protection.

"This," she declared holding the stone up, "is a gemstone that Nova enchanted to give the holder a protective field around them. And these-" Cheshire slipped the stone back into her belt and reached into the bag she had been carrying. She withdrew a handful of smaller stone and showed everyone. "-are gemstones yet to be enchanted. These gems have to be charged with an emotion. If Nova throws magic into these gems and then each one of you pour your want to save this city into the stone then they can all become a protective field.

"I think, that if we got as many gemstones as possible and got everyone evacuating the city to pour that feeling into a stone as they left it would be possible to bind them all together to create one massive shield over the whole city."

It was insane. We had never tried anything like that before. I had no idea if it was even possible to bind all the stones together like she was suggesting. I didn't even know where we would get the stones. Not to mention she was basically making it all up as she went. The idea of another person being able to charge a stone with an emotion was something we barely talked about, let alone even tested! This was more than a shot in the dark.

But if it worked, it might give us a fighting chance against all three Endbringers.

Dear Celestia, please let this work.