"To those of you who are just joining, where have you been? We've got a fight on our hands literally. We'll take a look at the board later, but let's focus in on Pacific View Academy; the Eagles, who have engaged in a skirmish of sorts with Carmel High also known as Vocal Adrenaline. This is a move that has many scouts questioning Dani Harper's decision making. Both PVA and Carmel High have placed every year for the past three years, engaging this early in the competition is an unnecessary risk." Rod turned to look at the rest of the panel. "What are your thoughts?"

"I think it's too early to tell," Sasha admits. "I mean it does make some sense to take out Vocal Adrenaline now and have them scrambling for points like the entire Eastern division, but it's only the first day and I would prioritize doing what other teams are doing, which is figuring out how to maximize their points and minimize deductions."

"I agree, what we do know is that Dani Harper has shown herself to be a rather intelligent tactician, so I'm going to assume that she has a plan of sorts. But can I just say that despite Jesse St. James' poor performance in this year's inter-high, he is absolutely bringing it right now."

"He's definitely reminding scouts and agents that he is still a part of the conversation. And to be fair, I think we need to look at this in the long term, I know everyone wants the big massive diamond that is Charlie Fabray, but there are other smaller diamonds that they should be paying attention like—holy shi—"

Sasha's mic was immediately bleeped out, and the camera cuts back to Rod who visibly flinched as a car nearly crashes on top of Elliot. This wouldn't be the first fatality at nationals. It had been like watching a car wreck, Lauren had simply body checked Elliott before picking up a car with ease and launching it at him. Before contact can be made, the car is sliced into pieces which fall harmlessly around onto the ground. "Dani Harper with the save, that could have been a catastrophic injury to Elliott."

"Has she gotten stronger?" Sasha asked, leaning forward.

"Lauren seems more focused, and that goes to show you that Shelby Cochran is a miracle worker—or that Coach Beiste is still inexperienced," April adds. Lauren seemed focused and she at least seemed to be listening to Jesse who gave out orders rather quickly.

"It's certainly a surprising pairing, Jesse has been described as difficult," Sasha pointed before raising an eyebrow, as Lauren suddenly breaks away from Vocal Adrenaline she immediately points to the screen. "We're going to need a replay on that entire exchange, because I think Dani Harper just used Elliott to lay a trap."

Rod Remington got up and headed to a separate screen so he could replay the exchange between Lauren and Elliot, he watched quietly for a moment but he couldn't see anything that stood out, Elliott was basically getting thrown around like a ragdoll. "Where—"

"There!" April and Sasha said before he could finish.

"Right there," April said, replaying the last few seconds in slow motion, "You can see him whispering something right before she hits him."

Rod squints, and he's truthfully surprised that he had missed the obvious. This event had quickly taught him that his time as a hero had been wasted. "But why—she's targeting McKinley," it almost comes out as a whisper and he shudders. "We're going to keep an eye on that development, but let's talk other teams."

~ O ~

"Come on, we can't let him make contact! You saw what happened to the rest of the eastern teams!"

Blaine grinned, as he darted down an alleyway, jumping onto a dumpster and using it to help him hop the fence, leading them to the perfect trap. He knew that he would never be an A-list superhero, his abilities had a ceiling. He might catch the eye of a few firms but he wasn't going to be lured in with false promises like Cooper had been. He takes a hard left dodging a fire blast at where his head had been. They were really looking to take him out, but he had been sparring with Santana while she was in her fire form, and they certainly didn't have Santana's heat.

Still he manages to duck and weave as he leads them through the city to an old playground before finally stopping and waiting for them, it was a wide open space. If he had been alone he would have fought them in the alley's, in an attempt to cut off their movements. The last thing he needed was to get surrounded, while he could hold out, the goal was to show good judgment, and to give everyone a chance to shine. While Charlie's ultimate goal was to get her hands on Charlotte Flair, she had made it very clear, she wanted everyone to get scouted. He turns around and takes a breath as he takes a stance.

'Blaine. Don't you fucking hold back,' Santana's voice crackles through his communications, and it's enough to cause him to distract him momentarily.

He glances around, but Santana's nowhere to be seen, "How—"

'We're in the flooded section of the city, Marley is our eyes in the sky in case Charlie stops paying attention, loses, or fries her communication device.'

Blaine snorts, it was probably what was going to happen. "I don't intend to," he vowed, focusing on the person who had finally managed to catch up to him. He would need to weaken them before the rest of the team could pounce. The Portland Scale Blazers were a perfect matchup. They preferred to be up close and personal, he didn't have to worry about getting taken out by a sniper or anything of the sort, all he would need to do is close the range and avoid getting hit. He wasn't even sure that he knew how to hold back anymore, he was sure Charlie and Santana had beaten it out of him early on. Neither one of them really knew how to hold back with him, they just assumed that he could keep up, and he really didn't want to disappoint them. He takes another deep breath, and closes his eyes as he lets the momentary stillness wash over him. He opens his eyes at the last second and swings his body out of the way dodging a massive gust of air that had been meant to knock him back. He barely manages to land before he twists his body out of the way using the momentum, to spin around to a base that he could regain his balance.

Once he finds his rhythm, he attacks, dodging and dancing past attacks the one calling the shots. He throws a sharp jab but his hand collides with a golden transparent forcefield. It definitely felt different than hitting Matt's forcefield, and he pulls back and glances at his knuckles which had been scraped. That certainly hadn't been in the data they had. He flicks his gaze back towards his opponent and smiles as he lowers his shield and Ryder strikes.

It's not flashy, and to the naked eye doesn't look like Ryder had done anything except for the fact that the person that they had just been facing slumps to the ground, his shield dissipating."

"It worked?" Ryder blinked. He hadn't believed Blaine when he had explained his idea. He wasn't even sure he'd been able to pull it off. With the ability to turn certain parts of his body into elements, he had never ever actually turned part of his body into a gas before. It felt weird. "I did it?"

"Yeah you did, I told you it would work." Blaine grinned, turning as he watched Kitty and one of Artie's golem's take out the other members of the team. That had gone well, even if it had been a bit rough. He glanced at his watch; they had just racked out a thousand more points.

"What next?" Kitty asked, rubbing her jaw. One of her clones had gotten clocked and she had taken on the damage when she had gotten rid of her clones.

Blaine let out a breath, before turning on his communicator. "Tina I'm going to need to have a rough idea of where all the other teams are located and what they're doing." His role was to keep the team safe, while also picking and choosing the right targets.

'A lot of the teams are sort of doing what we're doing, they're attempting to gain points by doing rescues, while also focusing on taking out other teams. I've currently got my eyes on Charlie, and there are quite a few teams that are keeping their distance and are watching our team fight Soldier Boy.'

"How's that going? Charlie switched off her communicator," Blaine asked. He doubted that Charlie needed back-up but he still needed to know.

'She stole his shield, she's just floating there playing with it while Rachel, Finn and Jake are working on taking him out. I mean it's more of a beatdown then anything else. Oh! Now she's practicing throwing his shield and having it bounce all over the place.'

Blaine paused, Charlie was bored, it certainly didn't take a genius to figure that out, and while that was worrying, he wasn't going to focus on it. Charlie had a goal and he had to assume that she had a plan or she was doing this to piss off all the heroes that had volunteered for this event. "Santana?"

'They've headed towards the coast and are helping with a water rescue. I don't see any teams—' Tina trailed off when she spotted Lauren who was alone and heading towards Santana's direction. 'I see Ziz—' before she can finish her thought something wraps around her foot and yanks it out from underneath her causing her to slam into the ground, and drop her invisibility as she reappears, yelping in pain.

Dani smiled and turned to Elliot, "Told you that Charlie was predictable, I mean there wasn't quite a lot of things she could do with someone who turned invisible," Dani mused as she strung up Tina, and crouched down to remove her communicator, which immediately is split into three tiny pieces in her hand. She drops it and steps on it, breaking it further.

"Should I—" Elliott trails off and looks at Tina with a smirk on his face.

Dani hesitated, she probably knew Charlie better than anyone outside her family and the one thing she knew was that Charlie wasn't much of a team player. She'd never once seen Charlie actually upset, even when they broke up, Charlie had been rather flat with her. There wasn't any yelling or screaming, Charlie just didn't get angry. Annoyed was generally as far as she went, she got bored, she got happy, but never really sad or angry. "We can use her, and in the worst case scenario we can use her as a shield in case Charlie comes after us."

Elliott smirked, "I have your permission?"

Dani hesitated once more, her ex-girlfriend had never once shown any interest in the Inter-High, the only thing that was different this year was that she got a chance to spar with Charlotte Flair, and she had to think that was Charlie's motivator. To Charlie this had to be a debut of sorts, which meant that as long as she got what she wanted then she didn't actually care about the rest of the team. She glanced over at Elliott once more, his abilities were annoying to deal with and even she'd been caught under his influence a few times, if Charlie wasn't paying attention or if she was distracted or caught off guard then they might be able to nab her and use her or at least take her out of play, until the end of the competition. It was a plan that was risky but if they could pull off this gamble then it would guarantee that they'd get to join every hero firm. While she was worried about her relationship with Charlie, she doubted that it would have a permanent effect. Charlie appreciated competition, and she didn't really mind losing every now and again. She might be bitter about not getting to face Charlotte Flair, but it's not like that couldn't be arranged. "Yes Elliott, you have my permission. Nothing weird, just keep her close."

"Understood," Elliot smiled.

"Catch up, I'm going to scout ahead, and see who we're dealing with," Dani said taking off.

~ O ~

"What is she doing?" Shelby hissed, staring at the footage and biting the tip of her thumb. This was not what they had practiced.

"She got caught, that kid with the emo haircut, did something to her. This isn't exactly her fault," Cassandra said in a bored tone, making a face. Command inducement was a rare ability and she was certain that there were quite a few government agencies interested in him. "How have you not prepared them for his ability?"

Shelby waved her hand, she wasn't going to have Cassandra criticizing her coaching style, "Elliott Gilbert has been sitting on the bench for the past two years, PVA's never needed to play him as a card. I thought they were going to attempt to use him against Charlie. I didn't think they'd go after Lauren!"

Cassandra wrinkled her nose, she probably should have paid a bit more attention to what Shelby had been working on. "Well that makes sense, it's not exactly the best ability to showcase, most people who have command inducement as an ability are sitting in prison, it's an ability that can easily be abused. It's also not an ability you can easily train against, depending on how strong he is. Honestly I would have just said to punch him in the throat before he could say anything."

Shelby rubbed her temples, "If PVA gets their hands on Charlie—"

"That's not what you should be worried about. If his abilities worked on Charlie, then Charlie would have assessed him as a threat, and taken him out. I'm guessing judging from his power level, that it's not absolute and those who have a stronger will are able to simply shrug him off." Cassandra tilted her head to the side slightly, and picked up her tablet and began to piece together the images that she was receiving so she could see what Lauren was making her way to. Her eyes widen when she spots Santana leading the rest of her small team in a rescue. "Shit."

Shelby turned immediately, "What did you figure out?"

"I figured out who the target was," Cassandra says, flicking the image up to the main screen so that Shelby could see Santana.

"Santana? Why would they target Santana—?" Shelby blinked when she heard the sound of the phone ringing and looked back at Cassandra.

"Britt, is Charlie dating that girl?"

'That girl?' Brittany repeats, as far as she knew Charlie was her only sister who wasn't dating anyone. She frowns and turns her attention back to the screen and spots Rachel. 'Rachel? I mean I heard they dated for like five minutes.'

"Fire girl, you know the one that I sparred with?"

'You mean nearly killed.' Brittany responded flatly. The damage that her aunt had done, had been horrific and she wasn't going to let her simply skirt over it.

"I've nearly killed a lot of people," Cassandra shoots back. "I've also killed a lot of people."

'Why do you want to know?' Brittany rolled her eyes, as she leaned back in her chair. Her aunt had never shown an interest in any of their lives.

Cassandra looked at the ceiling and Judy wondered why she never wanted to spend time with her nieces. "I'm trying to make amends." There is absolute silence on the other end of the phone and for a brief moment Cassandra worries that Brittany had hung up on her.

'Charlie's in love with her but hasn't figured it out. Why are you so interested in—Frannie I'm on the—oh.'

"Yeah." Cassandra stated. "Do you have any idea how strong she is?"

'Charlie doesn't lose control—'

"Charlie hasn't lost control yet, you mean. Do we really want to push her on this?"

Brittany chewed on the inside of her lip, she wasn't usually wrong about these things. Charlie had never lost her shit when she found out about Dani. It wasn't as if Charlie hadn't reacted at all, her sister had simply chosen the most idiotic way to handle all the negative emotions that she was feeling. But Santana was different, Charlie was different around Santana, she had seen the way Charlie looked at her. It hadn't been the way she had ever looked at Dani. If Santana got hurt this could be very bad. 'No. I'll handle it.' Brittany hung up and turned to find Quinn; Quinn was the only person who could help if Charlie lost her shit. She was technically part of the Titans. "Quinn you need to—" Brittany paused when she didn't spot Quinn in her seat. "Where is she?"

"Quinn?" Judy asks looking up from one of her screens, "Oh she went to go help Marley."

Brittany relaxed, Quinn wasn't an idiot and she seemed aware of Charlie's feelings for Santana, so she would probably step in if she absolutely needed to. Instead she focuses on her father, who is still shooting rather hateful glances at a completely unaware Miguel Lopez. "Dad, you need to find out where Grandma Rose is, and we need to get her here ASAP."

Russell groaned, "Britt-Bear—"

"Dad. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important. We need her here," Brittany informs him. "Trust me we're going to need her so please find her."

Russell frowned, there was a note in Brittany's voice that made him rethink his—strong distaste for his parents, and he closed his eyes. "Fine, but you have to handle her. I'm serious Britt, she's your responsibility."

Brittany waved away her father's concern, her grandmother Rose liked her best anyway.

~ O ~

Despite the fact that scouts rarely paid attention to the rescue team, it didn't mean that she wasn't going to impress. It didn't matter that rescue skills could be taught later, she needed to show them that she could be helpful in a natural disaster, that she had the sense to know when and where to use her abilities. "Hold it steady Matt! I'm nearly done," Santana yelled down at him. She nods when he gives her the thumbs up to know that he was still okay, and she immediately goes back to trying to stabilize part of the building by welding some damaged steel beams closed. This was something that Blaine couldn't do, and she was finally understanding why the teams were what they were.

Santana shakes her head and pats the steel beam as she finishes up, quickly and gives Matt a quick thumbs up to let him know that he could let go of this one. She checks the point tally and smirks, they had earned a respectable 1000 points for their work here. "Alright, we need to—"

'Santana we've lost Tina.'

Santana froze, and immediately landed onto the ground, tapping the communication. "What do you mean we lost Tina?"

'She was keeping watch, and giving me a report and it just went dead! The last bit of intel we received was that she saw Zizes. But no way Zizes gets her hand on Tina.'

Santana nodded she had to agree, Tina was very good at disappearing, and very good at escaping. The only person who really could find her was Charlie. Charlie always knew where Tina was. Santana squeezes her eyes shut as she runs down all the intel that they had received about the other teams, it could have been coincidence, but she doubted it. Tina was very good, and even Charlie had admitted to secretly losing track of her at times. There wasn't anyone that came to mind, and she's about to tell Blaine when she pauses. Charlie had mentioned something important while they were making notes about the other teams. "She got caught by Dani."

'PVA? How—of course those damn threads. Charlie can find Tina, but her communicator is down. And I'm worried about Zizes. You don't think PVA and Vocal Adrenaline are working together?'

"No, not willingly. Charlie's put the fear of god into St. Jackass, he's going to avoid a confrontation in an attempt to save his stock with the scouts. No, this is all PVA. I think we need to go on the defensive until I can—" A shadow suddenly enters her peripheral vision and she looks up, and her body freezes as she sees a massive car about to drop on her. She flinched waiting for the pain when she heard the impact, but the car fell to the ground after smashing into an invisible barrier.

"I got you!" Matt shouts.

Santana lets out a breath, and tries to control her breathing. She had seen her life flash before her eyes, and it had scared the shit out of her. She could still feel her heart beating in her ears and the rush of blood, which was deafening. She takes a shaky step forward, needing to shake off the feeling immediately as she stares at Lauren Zizes. "The fuck do you think you're doing Zizes?" Santana snapped at her as she immediately flared up, putting up her defenses. "Matt, take the others and meet up with Blaine. I'll hold her off."

"We can—"

"Matt. They're freshmen, and we can't fight Zizes and PVA and protect them," Santana insists, her abilities were hard enough to control as it were, when she needed to go all out and she couldn't let Sam and Artie get hurt in the crossfire. "It's just Zizes." Santana lied.

Matt flicked his eyes over towards Zizes, and then back at Santana, and licked his lips, "I'll get them to safety and come back for you."

Santana nodded, hoping that Blaine managed to keep Matt with him. The freshmen had progressed but they were still just freshmen, and Artie wasn't quite ready to step up without Tina by his side. Still it was just Zizes, she could beat Zizes hopefully before the rest of PVA arrived, if she could do that then she could retreat and go and find Charlie and kick her ass for switching off her communicator completely. She doesn't say anything else to Lauren; she's not a hundred percent sure that Lauren is in the driver's seat of this, and simply launches herself as fast as she can towards Lauren. Lauren moving was a pain to deal with, but if she could get her to inhale hot air, she could hopefully do enough damage and sap Lauren's energy.

"Help!"

Tina's voice is enough to cause Santana to turn and she spots Tina in between Dani and Elliott who have just appeared to her left; it's the distraction that is needed as Lauren collides with her. It's like getting hit by a truck as her body gets flung hard backward, stars exploding in her vision. Before she hits the ground she feels something wrapping around her ankle tightly, gripping it in place she barely has time to do anything before Lauren strikes again. This is what she'd hoped to avoid, getting caught by Dani and Lauren, she could maybe take them on one on one but together? She was so fucked.

Lauren grips Santana by the ankle and uses her strength to ragdoll her, sending her body into the pavement hard. She doesn't blink as Santana's body bounces hard and there's a sickening thud, at the impact.

Santana coughed, gasping for air to fill her lungs as she tried to crawl away, but everything hurt and the world was spinning. This was not good at all, she couldn't see Dani's thread manipulation, and that was probably how they had managed to capture Tina. "Shit," Santana grimaces and slowly raises her hand to shoot off a flare when she feels something wrap around her wrist and pulled it back. Her eyes widen as Lauren grabs her leg again. She needed to get free, she needed to get away. She needed to get away before Lauren put her out of commission permanently.

But her mind was fuzzy and, the stars that flooded her vision was starting to go black, and she is barely able to feel her body moving through the pain that she was already in, but the fuzziness snaps away as she feels an unbearable pressure on her knee, and she can't help the scream that erupts from her lips. It hurt. It hurt worse then facing that douchebag at fight club. Worse than nearly getting killed by Cassandra. It was just unbearable pressure, and she could feel her body trying to protest. There's almost a blinding pain in her knee as she feels something buckle and she slaps her hand against the ground, trying to break the hold Lauren had her in.

"Elliott," Dani said, turning to him sharply.

"That's not me, I only told her to knock her around a bit, I only pushed her. I don't control, I guess she has a lot of rage directed at Santana." Elliot waved his hand releasing Lauren from his influence. "We should probably get out of here before Sparky shows up."

Dani hesitated for a moment, this didn't sit right with her, she wanted Santana out of the picture, to put Charlie off her game, but this was going too far. "Make her stop."

Elliott groaned, "Why? Injuries happen all the time, and she's free too—"

The explosion of heat nearly knocks Dani off her feet and she turns as Lauren screams and looks at the third degree burns on her arms, body and legs. It was gruesome like the skin had melted off, leaving behind ugly blisters which suddenly burst, spurting out boiling hot exudate, which drips down her body. Dani flicks her eyes over towards Santana, her skin was glowing gold with steam blasting off her body. "We need to go now. We need to get out of here, release the freshmen. We can't be here!" Dani said, grabbing onto Elliott's arm and pulling him long before she uses her threads to swing them away. She had no idea what was going on but she had a feeling that being around Santana right now was a death wish.

~ O ~

"Beiste, you need to request a sub," Quinn informed Shannon, who had been watching in horror. Quinn gently touches Shannon's arm, breaking the shock and forcing her to look at her. "You need to request a sub," she repeats again.

"Right, Santana—"

"Not for Santana," Quinn says firmly. "Charlie. You need to pull Charlie out of the game before—" Quinn trails off and turns sharply to the direction Santana was. "Oh. Fuck."

~ O ~

"I need to know what I'm working with Beck's and you're the only one that I know that can draw that out of her. She's not taking this seriously." Charlotte groaned, honestly Charlie was simply showing off a rather keen mind and rather excellent battle tactics. She certainly had a head for it.

"I mean Sasha is probably a better bet," Becky groaned, she really had zero idea why Charlotte always made her deal with all her messes. "The kid's young and stupid, and you've seen how shitty her hand to hand combat is. Just outsmart her and outclass her."

Charlotte rolled her eyes, "You just don't want to get your ass kicked by another blonde." Before Becky can make a snappy and rude comeback, she turns and gets up heading to the main screen where there are thousands of streams being displayed in real time. She begins to search for something.

"What's going on Char?" Becky asked getting up.

"Someone just became a level five—" Charlotte shakes her head, before turning around so she could get to the balcony and take a look at the field in real time and possibly scout the area herself.

~ O ~

"Well, let's hope she doesn't explode," Frannie said leaning back in her chair.

Judy's eyes widened, and she sharply turned to her eldest. "Frannie." Judy quickly looks back at Miguel, who is practically out of his seat with worry, "Come on Miguel, we can go and see if we'll be able to see her. She'll have the best care." She said pulling him away so they could go and see if they could get to the back.

Brittany turned to Mike, "I need to go, I can help stabilize her."

"She's not actually going to explode is she?" Mike asks, looking at Brittany and holding onto her hand. He hadn't really hung out with her, but she seemed nice enough and he really was rooting for Charlie and Santana to get together.

Brittany shot a glare at Frannie, they didn't have time for this. "Santana will be fine, she is just going through—I don't know AI puberty, she's having an awakening of sorts. Her abilities are unstable and she might not be able to control it while she's in this much pain, it's like a defense mechanism. Except if she doesn't snap out of it—she could do some serious damage to her body. There is a tiny chance that she may explode, but like no one explodes these days. We have modern medicine," Brittany laughed and pulled her arm away. "I have to go. Frannie, get the coordinates from dad, we need to get Grandma Rose here now, I need a cover."

Frannie nodded, and waved her hand in a dismissive way, opening up a portal for Brittany who stepped through it. Frannie waves away the portal and immediately flicks to Santana's file. It would probably be nice to poach her from Summit. She would have actual talent to work and mold at K2, and if that level 5 happened to join their family all the better.

~ O ~

"So if I throw it, could you—like—bounce it off you and get it to ricochet. That would be a pretty good combo don't you think. Like bouncing it off you and controlling it a bit so they get hit in the face with the shield." Charlie said as she tossed the shield up in the air and caught it. It was surprisingly light. "No, that's stupid and I'd have to be perfect every time I threw it," Charlie mused as she flicked the shield off her wrist and catches it between the tip of her fingers and flings if it away from her like it was nothing, letting the shield collide off Soldier Boy's chest causing him to cough and drop to the ground. "I think we should find someone a bit more impressive for you guys to show off—maybe the Crimson Countess. What a dumb—" Charlie's head snaps to the right, and she rotates her body. "Get cuffs on them and return to our rendez-vous."

Rachel, blinked, that had been surprisingly fun and they'd managed to show off their powers. "But—"

Charlie shoots Rachel a look as she begins to hover above the ground, she doesn't say anything else as she takes to the sky and pinpoints where it's coming from, and quickly makes a rough landing, rushing forward a few steps to stop herself from crashing. She's about to say something when her eyes fall on Santana. And for one brief moment, Charlie's vision went red.