The awkward silence was suffocating, and Quinn wondered why her mother thought it was a good idea to invite the school bully into their home, when it was evident that Rachel had been bullied mercilessly by Santana for years. It bothered her to see Rachel simply staring at the ground like she expected this turn badly. Santana for the most part was just on her phone, watching a video of some sort on her phone. She sighs, and wonders where her twin was.

"So—" Quinn said as she tapped her hands on her lap, causing both Santana and Rachel to look at her.

"Is your grandmother a level five?" Santana asks cutting straight to the point and turns her phone around to show the shaky video that she had taken.

Quinn immediately rolled her eyes. "Yes. Grandma is a level 5—where are you going?" Quinn asked, startled as Santana jumped up and began to make her way towards the stairs.

Santana tilted her head over her shoulder, "To find her. She holds the secret to beating Tweedle-Dumbass."

"That's not actually—" Quinn began but Santana had already decided to leave them to their own devices and she sighs, giving up and turns to Rachel. "Sorry about that. I didn't know my mother invited her family. Or Santana."

"It's okay," Rachel admits. "I can't fault your mother for not knowing the dynamics of the town after only being here for a week. I know the Lopez's can be very kind to people they believe are worth it." Rachel sighed, it would have been nice if her fathers could remain friends with the Fabrays. "Do you think that your grandmother will actually actually teach Santana to beat your twin?"Quinn shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "Quinn, Santana will be unbearable if she beats Charlie."

Quinn smiled and reached over to pat Rachel's hand. "Charlie isn't actually weaker than my grandmother. I mean truthfully, Charlie's probably the second strongest in the family. Brittany, you know the one I told you about? Probably stronger than Charlie. I mean in theory if I cared as much about refining my power as Charlie did, I'd probably be stronger than her but I don't want to be a hero Rachel. That's Charlie's dream."

"Really?" Rachel asked, blinking in surprise. She had just assumed that Charlie and Quinn would attempt to join the hero path. The government regulated powers as best as they could, but there were bad people out there. That abused their gifts, which is why heroes were needed. It was a rather lucrative position, heroes were massive celebrities.

"Yeah," Quinn admits with a shrug. "I mean, my dad says that it's my responsibility to look out for the world. But, more than anything I just want to be normal. To have a normal job, as a writer, or a painter. I don't want my face plastered on cereal boxes, I don't want to shoot idiotic soda commericals. I don't want to be forced to watch what I say and do, because of a PR nightmare. I certainly don't want to be held responsible if I fail to save someone. I want to be able to have a bad day just like everyone else—regular people stuff." Quinn sighed, being a hero sounded tedious and she wanted nothing to do with it. But when Rachel looks away she suspects she may have said something wrong. "You want to be a hero don't you?"

Rachel flushed, she was a level two there was no way she was ever going to be one of the top tier heroes. "I wanted to be called Songbird," Rachel admits after a second. It sounded silly even to her ears now. "I of course grew up watching heroes in action and I thought that it would be cool. But as a level two, I'd be lucky to be considered a sidekick. If I even passed the licensing exam. I would never join a team like the Sentinels."

"Well I always knew that the Sentinel's were a bunch of pricks. Didn't know that they were idiots as well," Quinn rolled her eyes. When Rachel shoots her a curious look, Quinn shrugs. "Everyone seems to think that all because we're level five we're invincible. We're not. I was forced to take hero classes at my old school because of my level, and I got my nose broken by a level two who could make her limbs bigger and smaller. I wasn't expecting her to punch me in the face. There was blood and everything."

"Really?"

"Like I said, I am not cut out to be a hero," Quinn says with a laugh. "All because you're a level two doesn't mean that you can't grow to a level three. Realistically there is a ceiling to how high you can go, but if you really want to be a hero Rachel, then I need to introduce you to my grandfather. He used to teach at Summit. That's where he met my grandmother. He's nurtured some of the best heroes. He's retired now, but he enjoys teaching and I think he's upset that mom isn't going to have any more children. If Santana really wanted to beat Charlie she's asking the wrong grandparent. Sure my grandfather is only a level three, but I know he can still give Charlie a good thrashing if he wanted to."

Rachel's eyes widened considerably. "Your grandfather taught at Summit Academy? Isn't that the hardest hero course to get into? Most of the top heroes went there."

Quinn shrugs but she can only smile at Rachel's enthusiasm; it was infectious. "I mean it wasn't always the case, it started to become more—profit motivated after my grandfather left. They capitalized on the fact that several of the top heroes around the world took their course. Now they only admit 40 students a year into their hero program. Government's pay top dollar to send their prospective heroes to the Academy, and since they're the top Academy, they get guest lectures from heroes from all over the world." When Rachel looks at her she flushes and shrugs her shoulders. "They along with other academies and government agencies are attempting to recruit us."

Rachel was silent for a moment, as she thought about Quinn's offer. A place like Summit had always been a pipe dream for her, but if Quinn's grandfather really could help her with her abilities then at the very least, in the event that Santana managed to regain her power at McKinley, she would be able to finally defend herself. "I want to get better. Perhaps you could introduce me to your grandfather."

Quinn smiled and shrugged. "He enjoys teaching, as much as he loves my grandmother, which is to say a lot. And I really do want to see what your abilities are, Songbird."

Rachel flushes deeply as Quinn gets up and helps her stand up.

~ O ~

Santana forced a smile onto her features, as she spotted the adults gathered on the back deck. From the looks of it, they were having a very lively discussion on the back deck. She's about to leave not really wanting to deal with her parents demanding that she behave, when she spots the woman she's looking for beside a massive bear of a man. She immediately makes a beeline towards the back deck when she hears someone coming down the stairs. She flicks her attention to the stairs, and frowns when she spots Charlie, who clearly had just gotten out of the shower. Her hair was still wet, and she was in sweatpants and a t-shirt, despite the fact that it was late October.

Their eyes meet for a moment as Charlie runs a hand through her wet blue hair and pulls out her wireless headphones, "Why are you sneaking around my house?"

Santana inhaled sharply as she clenched her fist tightly, "I'm not sneaking, Smurfette."

Charlie touches her blue locks and raises a brow at Santana. "That's original." Charlie said sarcastically. "If you're going to insult me at least be accurate, Smurfette was blonde."

Santana curls her lip in disgust, and takes a step into Charlie's space and lowers her voice in case her parents overheard. "You want me to be accurate? You look like a bunch of smurfs led by Papa Smurf himself, jizzed in your hair dying your hair an ugly hideous shade of blue. Me calling you Smurfette is me being polite."

Charlie blinked at Santana's crass insult, and her lips quirk upward as she touched her blue locks. "You're probably right that it's about time that I took the blue out. But that doesn't explain why you were sneaking."

"I'm not sneaking, I came to find your grandmother and ask her to teach me how to get you on your knees—"

"If you wanted to fuck Santana, my room is upstairs," Charlie said a massive smile on her features.

At this, Santana didn't hesitate to launch a large fireball at Charlie's face. She didn't give a shit that she was in Charlie's house, she just wanted to kick Charlie's ass. She's not truly surprised when Charlie lets it hit her clothes which catch fire, and Charlie begins to pat the flames smothering them. "You—"

"Santana."

Both teenagers turn to look at their parents, her mother had a horrified look on her face and her father looked like he was about to murder her. "Papi—"

"We were playing, I know mom. Take it outside," Charlie said flashing her most innocent smile. She also makes sure to point out the bandaid on her forehead. It wasn't that deep but like most of her forehead cuts, it had bled quite a bit.

Judy flicked her eyes at Santana for a moment before turning to look at her daughter. "Come help your grandfather grill—no wait you'll eat all the food," Judy wrinkled her nose. "Outside." Charlie sighs and immediately begins to move, with Santana following her. "No fighting!"

Santana shuffles past her parents, and onto the deck where she finally manages to catch a closer glimpse of Charlie's grandmother. She watches as a large bear of a man fusses over her and glances over at Judy, who was much shorter and daintier than both of her parents. How that had happened was beyond her, but she wanted something from the woman and she approached her slowly. She freezes suddenly unsure of herself and rubs her arm, "Hi, we met earlier. Santana."

"One of Charlie's friends?"

Santana glanced at the big man that spoke, there was a huge smile on his face as he leaned forward. He towered over her, causing her to take an involuntary step back. Immediately she looks over at Charlie who was piling strips upon strips of bacon onto a hamburger bun and dumping several condiments onto it, before adding a rather sad piece of lettuce and takes a bite of it. "Yes." Santana lies as she turns her head back to him. "Well, we just met."

"She's very pretty isn't she Artemis."

Santana glances over at Charlie's grandmother who was sitting down rather regally, sipping wine. She can feel a critical eye run over her, before the woman smiles. "She is, though perhaps you should stop Charlie from consuming all the bacon before the burgers are done," Artemis said watching as her husband turned and spotted Charlie munching on her bacon sandwich, while attempting to crack open a can of Mountain Dew with her other hand.

"Charlie!" Charlie turns to look at her grandfather before she returns to attempting to pull the tab on the soda.

Santana watches as the big man immediately rushes over to his granddaughter, and chooses to use this distraction to get what she came for. "I want to learn how to beat her in a fight." It was more or less true, it wasn't as if she could inform Charlie's grandmother that she wanted to kick Charlie's teeth in.

"Oh?" Artemis asked, "Are you another level five? I didn't think that there were any other level fives in Ohio."

Santana flushed, "I'm a level 4 pyrokinetic—"

"Grandpa, lemme go!" Charlie shouted as her grandfather threw her over his broad shoulder and began to drag her towards the grill.

"There's a pretty young lady there, and you're stuffing your face," Lawrence hissed at his granddaughter, ignoring the stares from the other parents, or the fact that his daughter Judy looked like she wanted a hole to appear and swallow her whole.

"I know how to impress a girl! I've had lots of girlfriends! You need to be talking to Quinn. She's the weirdo, who doesn't know how to ask a girl out, not me." Charlie said looking at her half-eaten bacon sandwich, mournfully.

"You're embarrassing yourself," Lawrence snapped at his wayward granddaughter. Once upon a time he had thought that the twins were cute and would hang onto every word that he said. He needed to stop thinking of them as his cute little helpless granddaughters.

Charlie scowled as Lawrence placed her down beside Santana, and looked at her grandmother, puffing out her cheeks. "It was a perfectly good bacon sandwich."

Artemis brought her hand to her lips, to stop herself from chuckling out loud. "Lawrence. Santana wishes to learn how to beat Charlie in a fight."

Charlie blinked and turned to Santana, "You're asking my grandmother for help?"

"Well I don't expect you to tell me how to kick your ass, Smurfette." Santana snaps at Charlie.

"She already has a cute nickname for her!" Lawrence whispered to his wife.

"Get stronger? Be better." Charlie offered with a shrug of her shoulders, a smile darting across her lips. "Oh like that song, uh—how'd it go. Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger. That should be your new anthem, and then maybe in a thousand years you'll catch me on a bad day and you'll win."

The sudden wave of heat causes every adult to turn to look at Santana as she flares up in anger, her body exploding into flames. "Voy a matarte."

"Santana!" Miguel snapped standing up in horror as Santana launched herself at Charlie.

"Young love," Lawrence whispered to his wife as Charlie allowed Santana to tackle her off the deck and onto the dirt. "Doesn't it remind you of our early relationship?"

Judy turned to her mother who was watching both Charlie and Santana basically roll around in the dirt. "Mom, do something!"

"Let them be, when they get tired they'll go for a nap," Artemis said, taking another sip of her wine.

"Charlie's not two anymore!" Judy shouted at her mother before heading down the steps of the deck to try and break the two up. "All I wanted was a nice afternoon, where we could pretend to be a normal family, and I could make some friends with the other parents," she mutters mostly to herself.

"She's technically four," Lawrence calls out unhelpfully.

Judy lets out a frustrated shout, and she had thought it would be a good idea to move back in with her parents, while she went through her divorce. "Charlotte Reagan Fabray! Stop what you're doing before—"

Suddenly Santana's blasted off Charlie and lands several feet away from Charlie, she coughs and rolls to her feet. She needed to get hotter, she needed to be faster and then. Then she was going to cram a fireball down Charlie's throat and roast her from the inside.

"Santana!" Miguel's voice boomed even as Santana launched herself at Charlie again. It was the first time that he hadn't managed to coral his daughter as she tried to get in close and burn a hole through Charlie's face. He immediately heads down the steps to help Judy separate the two, when his daughter is sent flying back across the pond, her body skipping along the surface of the water, causing steam to rise up and create a thick fog.

"So what do you think?" Artemis asked her husband.

Lawrence tilted his head, "If that's a level four, then Charlie and Quinn might be labeled a level six on Monday." he commented, frowning slightly. "Though—" Lawrence rubbed at his completely gray beard. He had never seen a pyrokinetic quite like Santana, even if she hadn't reached temperatures to be considered a solid level four. It was quite possible she wasn't even a pyrokinetic, "She might be on the lower end of being a level four, with a bit of training and discipline she might be able to go as high as level 5, but on the lower end of the spectrum. It really depends on how much natural talent she has, and how much work she puts in."

"Charlie," Artemis called out to her youngest granddaughter, causing Charlie to turn to look at her, completely ignoring Santana who was attempting to set Charlie on fire. "You're being disrespectful."

Judy shot her mother a grateful look as Charlie stopped moving for a moment and mulled over what her grandmother had said. "Good now if you could both calm—"

Charlie turned to look at Santana, the playful look in her eyes gone, replaced by a rather dull look. If Santana wanted to fight her, then she would simply have to get Santana to give up. The air around her suddenly changes, and random bolts of electricity suddenly begin to crack around her. The smell of ozone began to linger as Charlie pointed two fingers at Santana who finally slowed down.

It's like everything is in slow motion for Santana, as she notices one of the rings that Charlie has on her finger suddenly starts to light up before a very bright, very concentrated beam of light erupts Charlie's hand flying straight at her. Her eyes widen and she's suddenly pulled back by an invincible force. There was an explosion as the bolt ripped through several trees blowing them apart, as the water in the lake parts before the blasts suddenly dissipated.

There was a silence as all the parents stared at the destruction, and watched as the ring that Charlie used as a weapon, floated back to Charlie and returned to her finger.

Artemis finally got up and walked over to where Santana was sitting on her knees staring at Charlie who was now fiddling with her ring. "Do you think you could have taken a blast like that?" Artemis asked, helping the young woman up.

For once Santana was speechless as she stared at Charlie, who looked around at most of the parents shocked expressions and used their shock to head back to her half eaten bacon sandwich.

"What the fuck—" Santana gasped finally as feeling started to return to her legs. She was certain that if that blast had hit her, it wouldn't have been pretty.

"Was that?" Hiram finished for her.

"What level did you say your children were again?" Leroy asked Judy who groaned.

"Level five," Judy winced when she saw the fear on Leroy's face. "This isn't her normal behavior, she's relatively harmless!" Judy said moving towards her daughter and trying to pry the sandwich away from her. She stops when Charlie growls at her. "Charlie for the love of—you're scaring them."

Charlie takes another bite of her sandwich and then takes a sip of her mountain dew. "I was defending myself," Charlie said with a shrug of her shoulders.

Judy inhaled sharply. "Room," she orders. When Charlie begins to float, she grabs onto her daughter and yanks her down. "No powers. You're grounded. No dinner."

"What? That's child abuse!" Charlie shouted horrified.

"Room." Judy repeated.

Charlie made a face and grumbled as she swiped a cookie and marched back into the house. This was totally Santana's fault. It wasn't fair, she'd been attacked! She was defending herself. She opens the sliding door to come face to face with Quinn and Rachel. "Rachel, we can get back together if you—"

"Charlie. Room," Judy interrupted.

Quinn tilted her head to see the damage to the trees that Charlie had caused and immediately stepped aside for her twin who threw her hands up and muttered a string of obscenities under her breath.

Rachel blinked, and looked at her parents who looked like they would rather be anywhere but there.