Hey everyone! I know this update is long overdue, but college has been a nightmare lately. I'm taking my first Law class and it is eating up all my time.

The good news is that I have this part finished and the next chapter should be out in the next day or so, since it is pretty much finished. I hope you all enjoy this next part. There's more Jason for the Jason fans, but he was meant to have a big part in this story, so keep tuning in.

Disclaimer: as usual, I do not own these characters or make money off of this story....You would think I would be able to do better than that since I'm in Law :)

Charlie tried not to fall asleep as Stan lectured on about something to do with applied physics. He was using his arm to prop up his head, so he at least appeared to still be attentive.
He knew from personal experience that Stan would not give him a break in class just because he was out all night trying to save the world. Even if he had been with him. Stan
was getting very comfortable in his role as a teacher and took it very seriously; too seriously, in Charlie's opinion. What did it take for a hero to get a break?

"Pay attention, Charlie."

He jerked as Stan addressed him, unaware that he'd nodded off. He heard a few snickers from his classmates. Annoyed, he glared at Stan, who just smiled and turned to the board to write
something down. Charlie rolled his eyes, knowing it would be pointless to argue with the android about how much sleep he required in order to function during the day. The last time he had
attempted, he got a long-winded explanation he didn't understand half-of, telling him that, mathematically, he had sufficient recharge time each night. Apparently, Stan had trouble grasping
the fact that he had to stay up late to do the homework he couldn't do during the day while he was off fighting bad guys. Like most teachers, Stan seemed to think his was the only class Charlie
took, and assigned homework in that mindset.

Figuring he should at least attempt to write down the notes on the board, he picked up his pen. When he looked up he noticed that Stan had paused, in the middle of a word, and
was not moving. Charlie frowned, glancing around at his classmates. All of them were looking at Mr. Stan's back with confusion. Stan stayed that way, frozen stiff like
only a robot could manage. Concerned murmurs had broken out in the classroom and a few students seemed ready to get up and ask if the teacher was all right.

Beating them to the punch, Charlie hopped out of his chair and moved to the front of the class. He really wished Emma were here. Her technical genius would no doubt come in handy at this
precise moment, for he certainly had no idea how to deal with a malfunctioning android.

As he was reaching out to grab his shoulder, Stan gave a small lurch, causing Charlie to start. The whispers behind him ceased instantly and everyone was quiet as they waited for their teacher
to explain his sudden, odd behavior. Oblivious, Stan finished the word he had been writing, continuing the motion as if he had never paused. Finishing the sentence, he turned and saw Charlie
standing right behind him. He looked confused as he gazed back at Charlie, who was staring at him strangely.

"Yes, Charlie?" he asked, clearly puzzled.

Charlie looked at him oddly. It was like he had no idea what had just happened. He wanted to ask several questions, but figured it could wait till they both were at his house.

Instead, he asked, " May I go to the restroom?"

Stan's confusion was replaced with a grin. "Of, course!"

With one last baffled glance at Stan, who had recommenced his lecture, Charlie exited the room, making a mental note to talk to Emma.

Charlie placed his last book in his backpack that he would probably not open over the long weekend and shut his locker. Emma was standing on the other side.

She grinned. "So how'd the mission go last night?" she asked cheerfully.

Charlie shrugged. "Cerebella didn't get what she came for, I guess." He hoisted his bag over his shoulder and leaned back against his locker.

Emma frowned, curious. "Sounds like a success, then. Why the brooding-hero look?"

Charlie sighed. "The warehouse blew up."

Emma cringed. "Oops"

"Understatement." Charlie stated. "Plus, there was just something about the whole mission that felt… off."

Emma crossed her arms, frowning. "Like what?"

Charlie glanced at the students filling up the hall, all of them excited at the prospect of a three-day weekend. "It was too easy."

Emma scoffed, trying not to laugh. "Too easy?" She grinned. "Charlie, you just told me that the warehouse got blown up."

"Exactly." He persisted. "Cerebella blew it up with the stuff she came for inside, she only had four goons with her, and they barely made an effort to get the machine after we showed up. Then they
just take off. It was weird."

Emma looked dubious. "I dunno, Charlie…"

Charlie leaned closer as one of their classmates opened up a locker right next to them. "Right before it blew, I saw Xero walk out of the warehouse and get into the car with Cerebella."

Emma frowned. "Xero?" she asked, as if she'd heard wrong. Charlie nodded. Emma seemed to think about it for a moment. "Did you tell Mr. Hall all of this?" she finally asked.

Charlie nodded. "About Xero, yeah."

Emma stepped away from the lockers. "Well then, he'll take care of it. You don't need to worry about it. Come on, let's get out of here."

Charlie knew Emma was probably right, but he couldn't help but feel like he was missing something. True, the mission had been fairly easy, besides almost being blow up. And the bad guys had gotten
away with nothing. Yet it felt like they had gotten away with something, something he had missed. Charlie made a mental note to ask Stan what else had been in that warehouse. He followed Emma
through the halls, weaving in and out of crowds.

Maybe Mr. Hall had gotten Cerebella's target wrong. Though that still didn't explain Xero's involvement. He couldn't recall the Omega Defiance ever performing super-villain team-ups. Despite their
common goal for world conquest and chaos, they had always seemed to hate each other.

Down the hall, Charlie saw Stan emerge from his classroom. A few students came up to him and he greeted them with enthusiasm. Charlie grabbed Emma's arm to halt her, still watching Stan.
"Wait" he said. Emma looked at him oddly.

He let go of her arm, indicating Stan with his head. "Have you noticed anything weird about Stan today?"

Emma turned around to glance at the android. "No…" She turned back to Charlie. "Why?" she asked curiously.

Charlie shook his head, unsure. "He was acting strange in class today. It was like he just suddenly went offline, or turned off or something."

Emma's brows furrowed. "You want me to come by later and offer to give him a full diagnostics check?"

Charlie smiled gratefully. "That'd be great, Emma, yeah."

Emma grinned. "Cool. Now can we please get out of here? Our long weekend doesn't officially start until we step outside these evil walls."

Charlie laughed. "Then let's go." He followed Emma toward the front exit, throwing one more glance at Stan as he left.

Charlie waved goodbye to Emma and bounded up his front steps. He sighed deeply as he entered the house. It had been a long week, both in school and the hero business, and he was looking forward to
taking a nice long nap.

"Take that!" Charlie paused right outside his door, listening.

"And that—whoa! Close one."

He rolled his eyes and sighed to himself. He was too tired to be dealing with his little brother today. Opening the door, the expected site greeted him: Jason was fully immersed in Hero Rising, his whole body
jerking with the controller as his avatar weaved in and out of an army of Helix's mutants, taking them out as he went.

Charlie noticed with annoyance that Jason had signed on under his avatar, Aaron Stone, again.

"Yes! You just got pownd! Oh I am awesome… beware of... Aaron… Stooone! Jason's fingers were flying over the controller. "Yes!" he crowed, punching his fist in the air.

A loud explosion came from the game, enveloping Aaron Stone. Jason's face fell. "No!" Pounding furiously at the controls, he tried in vain to revive his avatar. A large 'game over' flashed across the screen.
"Awe, Man!" Jason groaned.

Charlie could not help but agree with the sentiment. Now Jason's pathetic score was going to affect his record. Deciding he'd seen enough, he cleared his throat, satisfied when his little brother almost
fell off the chair in surprise.

Jason looked over to see Charlie standing behind him, arms crossed and eyebrow raised. He didn't look happy. He grinned up at his brother. "How's it going, bro?" Charlie grinned back, but it didn't make
Jason feel any better .

"I thought we agreed you were never going to pretend to be me again," Charlie said in an overly nice voice. He looked at the TV, where his avatar is now lying, defeated. Jason glanced back at the television
as well, wincing. Jason opened his mouth to reply, but Charlie cut him off.

"Or at least never try to again," Charlie corrected himself.

Jason tried to explain himself. "I got stuck on that level with the mutants and the virus. It got boring, so I figured I'd try out some of the stages I haven't reached yet."

Charlie scoffed. "You mean, will never reach?"

Jason frowns. "Thanks for the encouragement, bro."

Charlie ignored him and grabbed the controller away. "How did you even get here so fast? Emma and I didn't see you at all."

Jason stood up and moved away as he watched Charlie put away the game. "Dude, it's the Friday before a long weekend. Three whole days off instead of the meager two we usually get! I was out the
doors and halfway home before the bell was done ringing."

Charlie finished shoving all the game controllers into his console and turned off the television, and then he went over and turned off the light. Jason frowned.

"What are you doing?"

Ignoring him, Charlie went over and collapsed onto his bed, closing his eyes and smiling as he sunk into the pillows. It felt so good to just relax for once and he was looking forward to sleeping for a long
time.

The light suddenly blazed back on and Charlie's eyes slowly opened, his jaw clinching in annoyance.

"You're going to sleep?" Jason sounded shocked.

Charlie groaned into his pillow.

"It's Friday and the beginning of an epic weekend and you want to sleep?"

Charlie slowly sat up and glared daggers at Jason, who was too busy telling Charlie why he should get up to notice. Shaking his head, he stalked over to Jason.

"We need to plan. Figure out exactly when we are going to throw our party—I was thinking tomorrow night, tonight might be too short a notice—decide when—"

Charlie tuned him out, reaching behind him to flick the lights back off and then got back into bed, crawling under the covers. He let out a long breath and snuggled deeper into the sheets.

The lights came back on. Charlie's eyes flew open and he flung his covers angrily to the side. Launching himself out of his bed he walked right up to Jason, who finally stopped talking. Jason stared at him, finally
realizing he may have pushed too much.

Charlie kept his sentences short and clipped; afraid he might blow up at his brother if he did not. "Jason. I am tired. I am going to sleep. And we are not throwing a party."

Jason's face immediately fell. "Awe, man. Come on! It's the perfect opportunity! Mom won't be here and we can totally figure out a way to get Stan out of the house!"

Charlie frowned. "Where's mom going?"

Jason looked at him like he'd lost it. "Uh… the conference she's been talking about all week?"

Oh yeah. Charlie remembered his mom mentioning she had to go out of town for a few days. But he had no idea it was this weekend. That meant he was going to have to keep an extra eye on Jason the next
few days. So much for relaxing, he thought to himself.

Charlie sighed. "Look, Jay. I need to grab a few hours of sleep and then I'll come down and we can talk about what we are going to do, okay?"

Jason grinned. "Yeah, okay. Awesome! I have so many great ideas that—" Charlie nodded and pretended to be listening as he pushed Jason out the door. Finally, he went to close it but paused.

"Oh, and Jason?"

Jason turned around and looked eagerly at Charlie, waiting.

Charlie smiled. "No parties," he said, and slammed the door. He grinned as he turned off the light and went back to his bed. But the minute his head hit the pillow someone knocked on his door.

"That's it,"he growled. He went and jerked it open, livid and ready to chew Jason out and then kill him.

A surprised Stan stared back at him. He exhaled noisily. "Hey, Stan."

"Charlie." Stan greeted, still a little wary. "Are you feeling alright?"

"I'm fine," Charlie assured him. "Just really tired."

Stan suddenly looked very antsy and even apologetic. Charlie felt like screaming, but sighed and let Stan into his room, flipping the lights on with a bit more force than was necessary. Stan followed silently.

Sitting down on his bed, he looked at Stan expectantly. "Another mission from Mr. Hall?"

Stan shut the door behind him and glanced around the room. "Not exactly. Mr. Hall needs to speak with you."

Charlie shrugged. "Alright, put him through."

Stan shook his head and took a step forward. "I am afraid the matter about which he wishes to speak with you is too critical and requires meeting Mr. Hall in person."

Charlie frowned. It wasn't often that Mr. Hall had the time or the need to meet with him personally. The last time he'd met with the mysterious creator of hero rising had been when Elias Powers was still
imprisoned. That had been several months ago.

"Do you know what this is about?" he asked Stan, curious. Stan shook his head.

"I received a message during class today instructing me to bring you to a new location provided by Mr. Hall as soon as possible. That is all I know."

Charlie briefly wondered if the incoming message was what made Stan act so strangely in class. Then he realized what Stan had said. "Wait a second. He wants me to come meet him right now?"

Stan smiled and nodded. "Precisely. I already have the SSJ on stand-by and I have instructed Emma to watch Jason."

Charlie just looked at him incredulously.

The loud honking of a car horn suddenly made them both turn their heads. Stan's head suddenly jerked back and forth a few times and he turned to Charlie. "I'm sorry. I must have forgotten. Your mother
wanted you to come downstairs to say goodbye. She is departing for her trip." Stan looked perplexed, if that was even possible for a super-advanced android.

Reminding himself to talk to Stan later, he went outside to say goodbye to his mother; and now, he thought to himself, to figure out another lie to feed Jason about why he was going to have to take off for
a few hours.

He pushed the thought away as he stepped outside. His mom was already in her car, with Jason standing by the window, rubbing his cheek. Charlie jogged over to them, grinning sheepishly. His mom
raised an eyebrow, but she was smiling.

"Gee, thanks for taking the time to come say goodbye to your mother, I appreciate it," she said sarcastically.

Charlie smiled and leaned through the window to give her a hug. "Have fun, mom."

She kissed him on the cheek. "Now I expect the house to be clean when I get back; and Jason, clean your room." Jason rolled his eyes. She looked at Charlie. "Charlie make sure he cleans it up."

Charlie, who was rubbing his cheek, looked at Jason, smirking. "I will." Jason glared.

Their mom smiled and started up the car. "Alright. Be good, boys. Stan will be here but if you need me, just call." Both boys nodded. "Jason, behave. Charlie… look after your brother," she implored.

Charlie grinned, slinging an arm around Jason, who started struggling to escape. Charlie gripped him tighter. "No worries, mom."

She smiled as Jason broke free and put his older brother in a headlock, which Charlie quickly escaped and reciprocated. Shaking her head, she put the car in gear. "Goodbye, boys!"

Still wrestling, they both shouted out, "Bye, mom!"

Sighing, she waved and pulled out of the driveway, the picture of her two sons trying to wrestle the other to the driveway in her review mirror.

Charlie finally managed to get a struggling Jason to the ground. Jason sighed in annoyance. "How do you always win?"

Charlie grins. "Because I'm awesome." Charlie stood and offered him a hand up. Rolling his eyes, Jason accepted the help.

Dusting himself off, he asks, "You still taking your nap?"

Charlie's grin suddenly falls, realizing he needed to leave. "Actually, Jason I have to go out for a little while to help, uh, Freddy… study for Mr. Stan's test Tuesday."

Jason looked confused. "Freddy studies?"

Charlie inwardly kicked himself, knowing Jason was right. He didn't think Freddy had ever studied for a test in his life. Outwardly, he just shrugged and smiled. "I know. Surprised me too. But he's my
buddy, so I said I'd give him a hand."

Jason did not look completely convinced. "Can I come?" he asked.

Charlie held back a groan. He didn't have time to spin an elaborate tale for his brother's sake. "No!"

Jason looked slightly taken-aback, so Charlie tried to keep his voice calmer. "Look, I'll only be gone a few hours, then we can do whatever you want."

Jason narrowed his eyes. "Promise?"

Charlie smiled. He actually did feel bad about leaving. "Yeah, sure. I promise."

Jason finally smiled. "Okay. But I am the boss, the king."

Chuckling, Charlie started heading down their street. "Yeah, sure." He paused as he remembered something. Turning back, he yelled at Jason, who was heading back into the house. "Hey, Jay! Jason
turned around. "Emma will be over to baby-sit you in a minute!" He grinned at his little brother's pout and moan.

He was walking along the street for barely five seconds after his brother went inside when the unpleasant sensation of being sucked up and jumbled about overcame him. A split second later he found
himself sitting in the SSJ, Stan piloting. He shook off the strange after-sensation and looked at Stan, annoyed.

Stan seemed either oblivious to this or was choosing to ignore it. "We will reach our destination in fifteen minutes. Mr. Hall is very anxious to talk to you."

He was suddenly very nervous. What could be so bad that Mr. Hall couldn't even tell Stan in a message? He wondered if it had anything to do with his last mission, which was still bothering him. But
that had been last night. The previous weeks had been relatively quiet as far as take-over-the-world schemes went for the Omega Defiance, so he had no idea what this could be about.

Suddenly the next fourteen minutes seemed too long, and too short.

Not much, I know. But I wanted to save the next part because I felt it was a better place to split the chapters. But I promise the next chapter will be up in 2 days, tops. Maybe even by tonight if I can. Hope it wasn't too boring. I know I keep promising excitement. It is coming. :)

NinjaPadawan