Mike watched as Charlie eat her breakfast for a moment, before returning to his stretching. Santana had attempted to take Charlie through the basics of magic as if she was learning the basics of something as simple as cooking or handling money. Things that Charlie had picked up rather quickly, but Charlie already had some magical ability, and she was powerful too, and since she used magic without blowing off limbs then she had more than enough control over her magical abilities that she wasn't truly an active threat unless. So as far as he was concerned the basics were something they would probably have to skip over. "Santana told me about what you said, about how you were taught magic for the purpose of killing other magic-touched."
Charlie chewed on her breakfast sandwich before swallowing and looking at Mike, there weren't any other magic-touched in the room besides them, and she didn't think that Santana wanted her killing anyone. "Are you going to make me push apples again?"
Mike snorted at the question, "No," he said simply. He wasn't going to criticize Santana in front of Charlie, but it hadn't been one of her more well thought out plans. Though he couldn't truly find any fault, in her line of thinking. It was how most people learned that they had magic, floating objects were simply normal signs of development, from what they understood. Charlie however was different, she had learned how to control her magic by being in controlled simulated situations. Something that he hoped that they could recreate here. "What I do want you to do is show me everything you were taught and learned."
Charlie blinks, before wrinkling her nose, "I'm not allowed to kill anyone Mike, those were Santana's rules. And I don't want to hurt you by mistake, I could have really hurt you last time," she explained.
"I have no idea why you think you can actually touch me Charlie, you certainly didn't manage to do it before, and I need to see what I'm working with. You might not even need this training." Mike offered to her. "But we're doing it this way because that's how you learned right? Trial by fire?" He prompts.
Charlie hesitates, she had learned that way, and it had hurt quite a bit, and she was usually punished for hurting civilians—people like Mike. "I'd rather try and push the apples again," she says after having an internal debate.
"Look, I get that you don't want to hurt me. I personally don't want you to hurt me, but I need to see what you can do so I can help you with control. I think your magic, could be useful to help people. I mean you could be like Santana, she helps a lot of people—you wouldn't be evil to people then. You'd be a hero," Mike stated, gently pushing Charlie in the direction he wanted. Charlie didn't belong as a simple gopher helping out around Santana's bar. She needed to see the world, and experience more than what Santana could give her.
"I'd rather push apples Mike," Charlie says again, frowning when Mike takes a step towards her, suddenly disappearing completely and appearing above her swatting the top of her head as he did a rather graceful flip behind her. The action causes Charlie to scowl at him and try and smack him back only for him to disappear and reappear on her right side. His movement is swift, as he grabs Charlie's outstretched arm, and sweeps her foot out from under her causing her to flip through the air and land on her back, staring at the ugly warehouse ceiling.
Mike smiled as he crouched down beside Charlie and tapped her nose, "So, you going to try or what? Because I can do this all day." He immediately teleported backwards as Charlie hopped to her feet, there was a dangerous look in her eye and he could feel the magic swirling around her, she was annoyed and that was dangerous for him but he shoved that fear aside. It was unrefined, the Templars had no idea what they had once possessed, and even if they did, they had no idea how to refine Charlie. Had they simply treated her like a human being, this would probably be a fight for his life. "Charlie," he began gently, "You're not trying to kill me remember?"
Charlie scowled and took another swipe at him, only for him to teleport three times to get some distance from her. She wasn't sure how to stop him, while using her magic, because she didn't think for a moment that Mike was going to let her just try and push apples. Which meant that he'd get hurt and then Brittany would yell at her, even though it would be Mike's fault.
Mike teleported dodging a charge by Charlie, "I doubt summoning is the only thing you can do properly. That time we were playing tag before, Santana said that you can make things explode or break, or something along those lines. Which means you have some diversity in your attacks—" The magic that Charlie had been prepared to use, seemed to double as he talked. He immediately moved on the offensive as he teleported beside Charlie dodging a surprisingly crisp punch. The way she rotated her body, suggested that the Templars had taken the time to teach her hand-to-hand combat. His hand shoots out and he touches her shoulder, teleporting her. "Calm down," Mike stresses.
The sudden feeling of weightlessness, plus the disorientating feeling of the teleportation didn't give her much time to recuperate as she crashed onto the ground. It hurt, but it wasn't enough to actually cause her to stop attacking, that was what she was supposed to do keep attacking, and look for an opening. She rolls onto her knees and moves to quickly stand up, but the ground practically pitches and the room spins as her nausea builds. She glances around and spots an old barrel, and crawls to it, gripping it and using it to help her up before emptying the contents of her stomach into it.
Mike winced as Charlie vomited loudly into the barrel, "Sorry about that, I forgot how disorientating that can be for someone who has never experienced it, but you need to calm down and think. Fighting isn't just attacking relentlessly and praying that you find an opening that you can exploit. You need to think about how to trick your opponent, tactics are important. Out-fighting your opponent, because I assume, you are aware hand-to-hand combat with an opponent is a last resort." Which was probably why she had used it against him, it was a safer option for her than using her magic. "If you want to tag me, you're going to have to use your magic Charlie, I'm sorry."
Charlie slumps down on the barrel for a moment, catching her breath. She wipes her lips and looks at him, "If I hurt you accidentally, you have to tell Brittany not to yell at me. You have to say it was your fault and that I didn't even want to use my magic."
Mike nodded, he wasn't sure if he could stop Brittany, but he'd try. "Sure—" The words were barely out of his mouth when there was an explosion of air beside him, knocking him off balance, as he turns to look at what just happened. It was like the air around him had been compressed, before rapidly expanding outwards into a rather loud forceful explosion of air. What was more concerning, was that Charlie's magic had barely been a flicker. He turns his focus back on Charlie, when he realized that she'd closed the gap between them, having shrugged off the nausea between them and was in the process of what he assumed was a head-kick. He can feel the air rush by his face before he teleports himself, deciding to teleport behind Charlie.
Charlie rotates her body quickly feeling the change in pressure as Mike appears and slaps his cheek hard, the teleporting had hurt, and she still felt sick. Mike blinks at her and she shrugs, "Tag," she declared crossing her arms over her chest. Now they could finally go back to pushing apples.
Mike stared at Charlie in shock for a moment before bursting out into a fit of laughter. He couldn't believe that she'd predicted his movement so cleanly, she had a high combat sense, probably due to years of what he could only imagine was bordering on abusive training methods. "How'd you guess?"
"You either teleport behind me or to my side, so I left my back exposed so you'd think it was safe, and you went after it." Charlie answered with a simple shrug. "So now can I do apples?"
Mike shook his head, he had more questions to ask her. "What did you do? With the air? What was that?"
"I wanted a small explosion, but I wasn't sure if I could do it without hurting you, so I did it with air instead. I didn't think it would be very strong, but I'm not good at guessing how strong it will be, so I did it quickly," Charlie shrugged again. "It was a small explosion, and you're not hurt. I might be able to use that with civilians around." Charlie shrugged it off.
Mike turned to where he had just been standing a moment ago and looked back at Charlie, there was so much that they didn't know, and Charlie was holding back. Santana probably had no idea how much, she was holding back. "I'd rather see what else you can do Charlie. Don't worry, you're not going to hurt me or anyone else in the vicinity, just show me what you can do. But before that, do you have any defenses?"
"Defense?" Charlie repeated.
"A shield or something. I can't imagine that you don't have something to protect yourself in a fight," Mike says looking at her. "Can I see it."
Charlie exhaled slowly before nodding. It was the second thing she had learned how to do, to stop the pain.
Mike hesitated for a moment, he could feel Charlie's magic building, but he couldn't see anything. "Are you doing it?" When Charlie nods he picks up a rusty metal nut that was on the ground and tosses it at Charlie, but the nut bounces off an invisible field that is around Charlie. "Can you control it?"
"I can make it as small or as big as I want, depending on what I need to do. If I want something to protect me as I move, it becomes smaller if I want to protect myself from a blast it becomes like this. I can even make it around two people. To protect them or—"
"To lock them in with you," Mike said with a nod. "You can drop it now," he says. He hadn't expected to be done for the day so quickly but he was already exhausted and he needed to pace these things out for Charlie, who still looked a bit wobbly after her first teleportation. "Tomorrow I'll teach you how to teleport things," he said. "Let's go to a diner or something and get something to eat."
"I like pies," Charlie informed him. "We should bring some back for Santana too. So, she doesn't take my pie." Santana had taken her to a diner and proceeded to steal her food, even though she had said she didn't want pie.
Mike laughed, "Alright we'll get some pies Charlie."
Santana sighed as she felt Charlie's presence in the kitchen. She had told Charlie multiple times not to use magic in the kitchen, but now that Mike had irresponsibly taught her how to teleport objects and herself, she was like a kid with a shiny new toy. She was glad that Charlie's confidence in her abilities was up, but she was supposed to be sleeping. She still had three more days with Mike before things would return back to normal.
Thankfully it was a slow night, though she was fairly certain that most bars would kill for a slow night like hers. She turns to Marissa who had been helping her at the bar, "Can you handle things for a moment?" She asked.
"I'm getting all the tips while you're gone," Marissa responded.
Santana rolled her eyes, this was why she generally had Marissa working during the day. They personally clashed all the time, but with Mike taking the week off she had needed to make some arrangements, and Marissa had needed the extra hours. She turns and enters the kitchen where Charlie was reading one of the orders, and frowns at her. She waits until Charlie looks up before giving her a look of disapproval, "We've talked about this, no magic in the kitchen. No teleporting in and out, and most importantly you have a full day again with Mike tomorrow, which means you need to be sleeping."
Charlie looked at Santana for a moment before shrugging her shoulders, "Hungry."
"You ate an entire chocolate cake for dinner tonight, despite the fact that I've told Mike a million times not to just let you have dessert for dinner," Santana said, it had been a decent sized cake as well. "You need to eat a balanced diet Charlie, you can't just eat baked goods all the time." She would like to say that Charlie was gaining weight, but her body had seemed to have gotten used to her new diet. "You do know that we have food in the fridge, upstairs right?"
"I wanted a burger," Charlie explains. "With double bacon and lots of cheese and tater tots," Charlie explained. It was new on the menu for a limited time and she really liked them.
Santana frowned, "The bar kitchen isn't an extension of the fridge upstairs, if you want to continue eating here like you have been, you're going to bankrupt me. You're going to have to start paying for the food that you take from the bar." Santana said with a sigh. Charlie generally didn't eat like this but now that she was using her magic like she was, she seemed to be perpetually hungry.
"Okay, I'll go get some money—"
"I'll have someone make it for you," Santana said with a shake of her head. "You'll eat at the bar, like a customer, not in the kitchen. You're not working you're going to eat and then go back to bed. Understood?" Charlie huffed but nodded at this. "And for the last time, use your feet," Santana said before Charlie could teleport away. She was going to murder Mike. This was all his fault.
Charlie puffed her cheeks out at this in protest, but finally nodded and headed out the back of the kitchen.
Santana sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose, she was definitely going to have some words for Mike. Charlie had picked up teleportation easily, which had seemed to boost her confidence. But now Mike was talking about seeing if Charlie could try other types of magic, like her healing magic. She didn't imagine that would go well when Charlie tried, but she wasn't going to rain on her parade just yet. With another sigh she heads back to the bar and grabs a can of apple juice which she pours into one of the beer glasses for Charlie and placed it behind the bar until Charlie came to get it.
It didn't take long for Charlie to enter through the front door and make her way to the bar, she looked ridiculous in her pajamas but if it made her happy. It wasn't as if her bar had a dress code. Santana places the apple juice on the bar for Charlie and taps it not noticing that Marissa had gone rigid beside her. "Drink. They're already making your food Charlie." Santana says. "Just sit here and try not to get into anymore trouble."
Charlie nods and places her money down on the counter. "There," she said looking at Santana. "Keep the change." She had heard plenty of people say that in the restaurant before.
Santana looked at the fifty-dollar bill and rolled her eyes, "Alright I'll ring you up," she said sweeping it away, she had thought it would keep Charlie from raiding Lost Saint's kitchen, but Charlie didn't quite understand the value of money yet. So, she would put it back in Charlie's room later. It was part of the reason she made sure to go everywhere with Charlie when she wanted to go buy things. She was about to head to the register when Marissa grabbed onto her arm and tugged her towards the kitchen. "The fuck Marissa? I'm not interested and it's sexual harassment—"
Marissa turned to take a look at Charlie once more before turning her attention back to Santana, narrowing her eyes. "When did you get so comfortable with the Templars?" She hissed at Santana keeping her voice low.
Santana blinked and looked up at Charlie for a moment, "Look, I know Tina's been talking shit, but Charlie isn't a Templar."
"Bullshit, she was the one that came in here months ago, talking about how some magic-touched escaped and killed three people," Marissa said. "I'd recognize that face anywhere. Name too. Quinn Fabray, sound familiar? It should, she was in the papers after the Argentina event. She's a big deal."
Santana blinked twice, "Look, you're going to need to slow down because I have no idea what you're talking about Marissa."
Marissa lets out an annoyed breath, "Do you remember that card that I gave you months ago? With the Templar information on it? They were in the area investigating a missing magic-touched?"
"Yeah it had a dumb name on it, Flint or Finn or something," Santana said with a shrug. "It went into the trash, Charlie is the magic-touched that escaped, and I wasn't going to give her back to those monsters. By the way she didn't kill anyone, there was an accident and she survived."
"Her name isn't Charlie, that's what I'm trying to tell you. Her name is Quinn Fabray, she was here in the bar with that Flint guy."
Santana rolled her eyes, feeling a headache coming on. The last thing she needed was Marissa's paranoia. Charlie had been by her side for the last few months, she hadn't gone off to Argentina. "No, she was upstairs with me sleeping, also Charlie is magic touched. There are no magic touched Templars, they kept her in a cage Marissa, she's not a Templar. She's a weapon they designed to hunt people like me and your brother. Don't worry she's on our side now, it's cost me a fortune in food, but it's more than worth it. Mike said—"
"You're not listening Santana. I saw her, I would never forget the face of a Templar, and that was her face. So, unless she's using magic to hide her true appearance, or the Templar's have invested in cloning technology—that's her."
Santana turned to look at Charlie who had hopped the bar and was currently pouring herself some more apple juice, Charlie wasn't a Templar. "Or identical twins," she murmured mostly to herself. She turns back to Marissa, "Look, Charlie's—well she's not harmless, but she's on our side. So, I'm asking you to not say anything to anyone, until I look into it. Especially not to her, we're working to break the Templar's hold on her."
Marissa hesitated and looked back at Charlie who was sitting back down and drinking her juice. "If you're certain—"
"I am." Santana said. "Can you take care of the bar for a moment? If you need help ask Charlie to help, I need to go to my office for a few moments. Don't worry she likes working and helping out. That's how sheltered she was. She likes doing things."
Marissa hesitated but nodded, "Alright."
Santana nods and quickly heads to her office, closing the door and moving to her computer so she could research this Quinn Fabray. Marissa wasn't generally paranoid, but the story didn't sound right. It doesn't take her long to boot and she quickly opens up a browser and types in 'Quinn Fabray'.
Sure, enough the top link was discussing the Argentinian incident, she'd already read about it and watched the news. They hadn't released any photos, of this Quinn Fabray person. She scowls and quickly tries again, deciding to limit herself to Instagram, for starters. Charlie was young, it would probably be what Quinn was using.
She smiles and clicks on the first link, only to frown when she realizes that there isn't a photo of Quinn Fabray at all, just random photos of food and a few doodles. Santana scowls and is about to exit the screen when her eyes land on the photo of the Broadway Tickets. That was the one that Brittany was currently choreographing. But Brittany hadn't mentioned anything about Charlie having a doppelganger. Immediately a name and a photo popped out at her. Rachel Fucking Berry. That wasn't even six degrees of separation.
Santana immediately closes up her computer, and heads back to the bar. She knew exactly what she was going to do tomorrow. She was going to hunt down her ex-girlfriend and get answers. She stops in front of Charlie who is putting her tater tots into her burger and stares at her for a moment. "Quinn?" She asks looking at Charlie, who still seems very focused on adding tater tots to her burger. She hadn't even registered the name and she lets out a sigh of relief for a moment before moving over towards Charlie and stealing a tater tot from her plate and popping it into her mouth. "Stop playing with your food," Santana said to her.
Charlie puffed out her cheeks but put the bun back on her burger and bit into it.
"Is she—" Marissa began, stopping when Santana shot her a glare.
"No, she's not, but I will get to the bottom of this. Just don't say anything to anyone," Santana said quietly before flashing a smile at the newest person to enter her bar.
