The city was in a festive mood, as they survived an Endbringer invasion totally intact. Not a single death because of an Endbringer happened, the city wasn't walled off, though there were some who wanted to do this just in case. This was the lowest casualty in an Endbringer battle since Behemoth surfaced. Because of this, a lot of the people of power were confused. Why the hell would the Simurgh come to the bay and don't do anything really nefarious?

Few people were willing to discuss what they had saw. The morphosis of the Simurgh, and then the bright light that non of them saw, but felt, and the fourteen powerful beings, that were so powerful that they instinctively knew that they never should face, and the Custodes. These four things were bringing up questions that couldn't be answered by ordinary methods (sic a few thinkers on the problem).

Anyway, that problem is for the heads of the Protectorate and PRT to figure out, let's focus on the local Wards team.

"Dennis, do you have any idea what the fucking hell happened over there?" This was the young heroine Vista, the youngest of the wards, with a pretty cute costume. Out of costume, she goes by missy. She can bend space like it's her bitch.

"No idea Missy, I was just a couple of feet nearer to the scene than you. I guess that we won't be expecting the Simurgh in the future Endbringer battles." This was the teenage hero Clockblocker. His name was not planned by the PR machine, and he's not a favorite of the director at the moment. He's the Dennis that was called.

"Anyone has any idea who those fourteen capes were? Did you feel that around them too?" Kidwin asked the group. He was the tinker on the team, a young man named Chris.

"You mean the aura of Doom that grew more powerful the nearer that you were to them? Yeah, it wasn't just you. I have never felt more powerless in my life." Aegis answered Chris. In here, he would be named Carlos, as he trusted everyone here with his life. Well, maybe not Sofia, but he still trusted her a lot.

"It was like they could've killed all the Parahumans gathered and not break a sweat. Do you think it was a master effect?" The last part was whispered by Gallant, the rich boy named Dean Stanfield. He had taken his powers from a bottle, but the others didn't know that. He also dated Glory Girl of the New Wave. He, like everyone else, didn't feel like spending the rest of his life in Master/Stranger confinement, or Killed outright. The Parahumans were the only ones who were near The Simurgh, and thus in her scream radius, and hearing the word master may bring that on their heads, just in case.

"I don't think so. They didn't even look at us the whole time we were there. They felt like forces of nature, and I mean that literally. Two of them felt like the sea, and don't even ask me how I know it. Even I don't know how I know that." This was the edgy, dark heroine known a Shadow Stalker. she was one of the younger wards, along with Chris, but she wasn't as good with the rest of the team. She was a vigilante before becoming a ward, and was from the poorer parts of town. But with the economy as it were, that was most of the town. She was Sofia Hess.

"Those new guys, The Custodes, they seem to have a pretty good idea what the hell was going on. Did you see them kneel at the end of the thing? After the bright light?" Browbeat put in his two cents, as he was nearer to the event, being farther from the rest of the wards. John was his name. He was the nwest Ward of the ENE.

"Yeah, wonder what was that about. And the Simurgh said that she was here especially for them. She literally said that she 'Changed shifts' to come here. And the one who left, that Hurricane, they treated him like he did stupid things like speaking with an Endbringer regularly." Chris said.

Missy nodded, and said, "Did you hear the end of their talk? I think the old lady in the green dress told Simurgh to go to the Custodes base, and they didn't even give a token protest! like they were just resigned to it, and they had to do what those people told them."

"Yeah. Poor fuckers. Wonder what they have over the custodes. Bet it's something big." Sofia said. She had seen tose two girls beat up the ABB like it was nothing, like they dealt with more enemies and still came on top, and they didn't use superpowers. It was pure skill, the likes of which they make spy movies about, like those from Earth Aleph.

"It's probably all that high end gear. You can't get shit like that cheap. I remember when I was starting. gutting home appliances and the like. Metal and leather like those doesn't come from toasters or fridges. You need real money." Chris said.

"They took out a ramped up Lung, though. That's not just money talking." Carlos said.

"I heard he was full of poison when the Protectorate brought him in. They had to isolate him for two weeks, and the first one he was unconscious." Said Dennis.

"They murdered Bakuda too. They say they were so cold about it, they just stood on her prone body and discussed killing her like it was for sports." Dean spoke, with a frown on his face. Always the chivalrous one, Gallant.

"From what I heard, she had put bombs in the heads of civilians. Wouldn't be long before she had a kill order. You all remember the influx of Asians coming to the PRT? Those were her doing, all those she had bombed. The crazy bitch even had a deadman's switch." Sofia said, to the shock of the team. She wouldn't normally speak this much with them.

"There's fourteen of them around. There's as much of them as the Protectorate and us combined. What the hell should we do if they go villain? I don't think we'd get much help from the Protectorate at large." Browbeat said.

"Depends on what the hell they do. If we're lucky it's not gonna be that bad. If not, then the Triumvirate would have to come, and we don't know the whole of their ability." Chris said.

"From what I heard, some of them can control lightning. You heard that big thunderstrike the day some dumb motherfucker decided that taking Purity's kid was a good idea. All the city saw that, the flash lit up the night sky. That was them. If the namings are right, it's Tempest and Hurricane." Carlos said.

"I know about the one with the bugs, Khepri, they call her. They say she's badass." Dennis said with a shudder, not a big fan of the creeps crawlies.

"They must have a tinker, and one of them can teleport too." Dean said. "Glory Girl said she saw one do that."

"And all of them seem to know how to use weapons. I saw them fighting once, they know what they do. And there may have been a metal dragon too." Sofia piped in. It seemed she had a crush, but no one would dare say it to her face. She would be a vicious bitch if she heard it. Except one.

"Somebody has a crush..." Dennis murmured, and there was a coughing fit around the room. Sofia looked at him and said,

"What? I didn't catch that. Did you ask me to come fuck you up?" Her hand was moving towards her crossbow, and as Dennis reached the door, a bolt was stuck besides his head. He screamed in fright, and there were a few chuckles at this. They had some more small talk, and then they left for their homes.

A few hours after giving the design for precog-blind-inator, the team heard a knock on their door. They all knew who it was, but none were willing to open it. Leo suddenly had a brilliant idea.

"Hey Percy, open the door."

"You open it."

"It was your fault so you open it." hearing this, the rest of the team caught up, and they all looked at Percy expectantly. He gave them a dirty look, and went to open it while swearing under his breath.

He opened the door to see Simurgh behind it, to the surprise of no one. She had a bright smile on her face, her eyes shining with humor.

Percy moved out of the way, and she came in. Her wings were tucked tightly behind her back, to have room to enter the door. She gave a bright "Hi!" and sat in Percy's place on the couch. He gave her an irritated look, and brought himself a chair.

"How did you like Lisa?" Simurgh asked.

There was a few looks around the team, and Leo spoke.

"Nice girl all around, but what the hell are those blueprints that she gave us? There's no feasible way that they should be able to do what it says. It's like a punch in the face of the rules of the world!" He gave a rant that took five minutes to finish, to the bemusement of Simurgh.

"Do you know what tinkertech is?" She asked. There were a few confused looks around, and Annabeth said, "Not really. We know each tinker has a specialty, each making something around a certain field, but not much else."

"Tinkertech is pseudo technology. It's some complicated device that can't be replicated with science. Back when I was a conflict engine, I could tap into the specialties of the tinkers that were in a certain radius of myself. While doing that, I had access to blueprints that were in their shards, using them to make esoteric devices. They are the definition of contraptions, as there's no reason that they should work. when the tinkers make whatever it is they make, they imbue the material with their power, making small, interdimentional portals, that gave the effects of the made device. So basically the effects are made by the shard, through the interdimentional portal in the device. Now, I'm the goddess of contraptions, so I can make devices that have interesting effects without having to tap into the tinkers. It's the same principle as the tinkertech, but it can be made by anyone, as long as they have the blueprints. The power doesn't come from extra dimensional sources, but from my power."

"What are these shards that you spoke of?" Annabeth asked.

"I believe that Gaea told you a bit about the entity, how it would release seeds of power on a world, giving the people powers. They are not seeds, but shards of the entity itself. But even shard is a misnomer, think of them as cells, or better yet organs. As I told you before my ascension, I was communicating with the Queen Administrator. That is your shard, Taylor. It's main duty is controlling the mass of other shards in the entity. So, it has the amazing amount of multitasking available to it that you enjoy with your bugs, but for the powers themselves. It's like a central command, Giving orders and receiving data from all the shards. What power it's given you is an approximate of what it does normally."

"So why bugs? why not anything else?" Taylor asked.

"Because everything else has a more complicated brain complex, and trying to control all of them takes way more energy than controlling all those bugs, even if the bugs are more numerous."

"This has been bugging me for the last few hours. What the hell's up with the damn names!" Leo blurted, looking a little horrified after it. Fortunately, Simurgh laughed it off, and said,

"It's just to mess with Lisa. It irritates her a lot."

"Do you have a device to contact my shard?"Taylor said, after a few minutes of silence.

"I thought you'd never ask."

Lisa was feeling happy. She had made it to the Undersiders base, and was chilling while watching a movie from earth aleph, and eating leftover pizza. The base was full of activity, as her teammates were in a flurry of action gathering everything they needed. Brian would be going to the CPS to do the work necessary to take custody of his sister, the brat Aisha, Alec was gathering his videogames and various consoles in a suitcase, and then cramming his clothes on top. Most of his clothes were left behind, but he didn't seem to mind. Rachel was acting erratic, her forced cure at the hands of Simurgh giving her a new perspective to what had happened to her in her life. She now understood what happened to her, and was in a bad state in life. It would take a month at least before she would get better.

Lisa was in a world of her own, thinking of plans to deal with Coil. She had to speed them up, and they had to leave him alive long enough for her to take hold of his assets. They didn't know his real identity yet, so there was a risk of him running away, and liquidate his assets. She would need the money if she was to take care of his damn vast organization. If all those mercs were released into the streets of the bay, it would be a new disaster for her to take care of.

She stood up, and hugged Rachel when she burst into tears. She let her cry, consoling her, and after her tears dried, she told her about a doctor, that her work was amazing, and she could help her cope with what had happened to her. It took a bit, but she accepted, and Lisa set up an appointment with Dr. Yamada.

It was the last day of the Undersiders. Unexpectedly, she would miss them. They had a lot of fun in the months that they were together. Maybe they would keep in contact.

It had been a ten days since making the precog-blind-inator, and it was time to make their move. Lisa had contacted Trickster, the leader of the Travelers, last night, and told him about Coil's plans about them. How he wanted to release Noelle on the city, how he had no way of curing her, and about the alternative. He had agreed, and they would attack the three bases tonight. Coil had been identified by Taylor, and a team of three would be sent after him. Rule of engagement was to capture him alive, but his condition was flexible. The mercenaries would be warned, they would be told that they can be paid twice their contract if they didn't do anything, and they would try to take the rest alive.

It was the night of the operation. Lisa had taken the Noelle-restore-inator and was getting ready to storm the base with her team. Nico, Annabeth and Katie were with her. They were getting ready to go for Noelle. They received the go-ahead from the Stoll brothers, and Nico shadow travelled them in. They were hearing fighting noises. Seemed some of the mercenaries were disagreeing with the regime change. Oh well.

They reached Noelle's vault, and saw Trickster waiting for them. There were a few unconscious guards surrounding him.

"Is this them?" He asked.

"Yes." Lisa answered. She opened the vault, and suddenly the pungent smell of rotten meat hit their noses. It seemed that Noelle was distracted by the sound of fighting, giving them just a glance, and her attention returned to the voices. Lisa took advantage of this, and pointed the Noelle-restore-inator at her and pushed the red button. It was in the shape of a box, with four wheels under it. And had an obnoxious red button in the middle. It came to life, with Loud noises like a star engine from sci-fi movies, and that gained the attention of Noelle. She spooked and when she tried to attack them, there was a bright flash of light, and a scream, and she faceplanted on the hard floor. She was naked from the waist down, and Trickster rushed to help her up. He started thanking them profusely, and after a few moments, they left the couple behind. They left the Noelle-restore-inator, as it had served it's purpose, and went to check the rest of the base. It seemed that the fighting had died down, and they reached the others to see they had found poor Dinah. She was a shell of herself, as the month of being drugged had damaged her body. Will was tending to her, giving her a few concoctions to boost her metabolism and healing factor.

The mercenaries were in a corner, some of them bound, the rest standing watch over them. The communicator came to life and informed them that the other bases were neutralized. Lisa went to Coil's office to start on acquiring his assets.

Taylor had left a bug on Coil, and had once followed him to his house. She, alongside Reyna and Percy went to his home, and she found him asleep in his bed. They silently opened his door and went in. They went up the stairs, and found him asleep in his bedroom. They tied him up, and he didn't even stir from his sleep. It was pretty anticlimactic. Percy threw him up on his shoulder and carried him to his own base. They had even looted his house for whatever valuable he had, and his IDs.

"So this is consultant Thomas Calvert with the PRT."

"No wonder the whole city went to shit."

Afterwards, when they told the story to Simurgh, she said,

"So the precog-blind-inator works as advertised. Good to know. Luckily none of the shards use divine means to predict things, so that's taken care of."

And so, the raid to Coil's base was concluded.