Rod Remington walked up onto the stage, cue cards in one hand, his other hand busy adjusting the headset that he'd been given. This wasn't the first time he'd hosted this event, nor was it the first time his wife, Andrea Carmichael was announcing, but he was certain that this would be one of the more memorable Inter-high events he'd been a part of. One look at the audience and the sea of recruiters and agents was enough to let him know that there was an interest. Agents didn't generally appear until Nationals, and scouts were never here in these numbers.

Rod scans the near 70 schools that were in attendance until his eyes landed on McKinley and found the cause of the commotion. She had saved his life, and he hoped that Mckinley was the school that took home the banner today, so that he could thank her in person. He couldn't show any favoritism while the competition was open. He waits until the producer counts him in and the camera's are on him.

"Welcome to the 33rd Midwest Regional Inter-High!" Rod announced, his voice booming as the crowd burst out into massive cheers. Rod laughs, playing up to the cheering as a box is rolled onto the stage. "I know I should say a few words, talk about our sponsors, make jokes at a few of the coaches' expense, but this isn't about me. The Regional Inter-high is an event to get noticed by the top hero academies in the country. Not only are scouts from schools like Summit and K2 here, I know from experience that the top Heroes, and the top hero firms from around the country will be watching and judging you as well."

Some of the students that he could see looked hungry, they wanted this. Becoming a hero, meant that you would be at least a minor celebrity in your area, the best of the best. Would have huge marketing deals, they would become pop-culture icons. Children, teenagers, would buy their merchandise, for many it was a ticket out of poverty. For others it was their chance to be famous. Everyone of these teenagers had a reason for wanting to risk injury and death to become a pro-hero. They all had their own goals and dreams. This was the first step for a few of them, but for the vast majority of them the Inter-high was their ceiling.

Rod smiled, enjoying the showmanship as the entire arena began to quake as the ground and his surroundings began to change and shift around him. Turning from an empty field into different zones, from mountain ranges, volcanoes, to urban streets." A few of the students are in awe, but the top schools look completely nonplussed by the changing field. He couldn't explain the technology behind it as his stage was suddenly lifted so he was above it all. "As I'm sure some of you've guessed but the first event is Rescue Operations. For those of you that have never seen this event before allow me to give you a quick breakdown of how this event will be scored. Each team will be in charge of three zones. The captain of the team will be in charge of deploying members to each disaster zone, some of these may be natural disasters, some of them are from terrorist attacks."

There is chatter from the crowd and Rod lets it sink in, he watches as several students begin to discuss tactics and waits for another beat before choosing to continue. "Each team starts out with a maximum of 300 points, each zone worth a 100 points. You will be rescuing and protecting professional civilians who will deduct points based on any mistakes your team makes, and a lack of efficiency. You will also be watched by the judges, who can also deduct and award points. If at the end of the event your total score is 150 and under your team will be eliminated from the competition. If you complete your disaster zone in time you can send members to different zones to help out. Actions such as those could net you points from the judges, however rushing and injuring civilians will cost you points. There is a balance. Good luck."

~ O ~

Charlie took a big bite of the sub that she had swiped from Quinn. She immediately crinkles her nose, and wonders how she and Quinn could possibly be related. Who put olives in a sub? Quinn knew she hated olives. She makes a face and wonders if she should chuck it at Quinn's head but decides against it. She was starving, and she didn't waste food. She chews absentmindedly before looking up to notice that her team was staring at her, there were expectant looks on their faces and she blinks. "We all know I'm not sharing."

"Seriously—" Lauren inhales sharply and immediately stomps off.

Santana looks over at Lauren before groaning when no one else stepped forward to try and get Charlie to focus. "Charlie—"

Charlie flicked her eyes over to Santana after taking another bite, she makes a face and hands the rest of the sandwich to Santana. "It has olives. Quinn's a savage. You want to know what the breakdown of teams will be? It all depends on what the events are. Once it comes time to deployment I will put you in groups where you will shine. But since there are currently three zones, we need to have three different leaders. They will run point on each of these zones. Obviously I'll run point on one, Santana on the second and—" Charlie studies her team quickly. Matt and Jake basically faded into the background for her, she wasn't even sure which one was Matt and which one was Jake. Her eyes fell to the freshmen, and she frowned, none of them were ready. Santana had been the captain before her, and had experience in leading even if it had been in a losing effort. Rachel was still just support and at this moment in time, she didn't have the confidence of the team. And choosing her, would only lead to complaints of favoritism. She was being forced to choose between Finn and Lauren.

If she had to choose between them Finn was the safer bet, he was dim but he had improved. The problem was that she doubted that he could keep Lauren in line. Santana could, she definitely could, but Finn would be chewed alive by Lauren and spat out. Choosing Lauren was a risk, but no one else had the power to be a threat like Lauren did. Charlie makes a face, and looks over at Santana who seemed to be on the same wavelength. She didn't look happy about the choice that she was going to have to make either. "Lauren is the third captain."

A huge smile breaks out across Lauren's face. "Finally. My chance to shine, maybe you aren't such an embarrassment as Captain of the team."

Charlie rolled her eyes before looking at her team. There was no need to rise to Lauren's bait. "The goal is to rescue people. So do that. Rescue the civilians but remember your surroundings. Tina use your abilities for recon. Rachel no matter where I place you healing the civilians should be a top priority. I don't know what could cause points to be taken off so we should be treating these civilians like they're children. Be as gentle as you can."

"Mistakes will happen," Santana adds after Charlie. "You need to remain calm and focus. That's the most important part of this. You all know basic first aid, so stick to the basics. Don't try and show off, this isn't the event to be flashy, it's about saving lives. Prioritize that over trying to impress the scouts."

Lauren scoffs at the advice. This was a sink or swim situation. They didn't need to be cautious. There was no point to the Inter-high if you didn't get scouted, and that was exactly what she was going to do.

~ O ~

"Have they announced what zones McKinely would be competing in?" Brittany asked looking up from her phone, she was here to support Chuck. She had spent most of the morning texting Mike.

Frannie dragged her finger along the screen of her tablet, before snorting, "It was just announced, Zones 18 to 21. I can't imagine that this will go well at all."

Brittany leaned over to take a peak, "Because McKinley isn't that good? None of these events look that difficult for Charlie to handle." When Frannie highlights something, "Oh. Yeah, that might be a bit problematic, if she forgets where she is."

"What's problematic?" Quinn asks, before scowling when Brittany and Frannie ignore her. She turns to look at her aunt Cassandra who tosses her tablet at her. She catches it and plays around with the screen, before she manages to unlock it. She taps the screen and looks up the zones. "Zone 18—Avalanche rescue. Zone 19—Hostage situations. Zone 20—Giant Robot Attack—oh—well shit." Quinn winced, she knew her twin well enough to know that if they put her in front of a giant robot or quite frankly anything with the word giant in front of it, it was the only time that Charlie let loose, the last time she had faced a giant robot, she had caused over 5 million in damages. It had been of government funds, but they hadn't been able to stop Charlie until she got bored.

Judy takes the tablet from Quinn and shows it to Russell, wincing slightly. "Perhaps we should stop the competition. We don't want Charlie to make it impossible for others to compete. You know how excitable she can be."

"You also know how competitive she is," Aretmis spoke up. "Charlie isn't needed to face a giant robot. She's the only one who can successfully lead McKinley through the avalanche rescue." Artemis leans forward, whether or not Charlie would read the situation correctly was the real question. Being able to deploy the teams that would be the most efficient in handling a situation was also one of the key components of the test, and if Charlie made the wrong decision her team would lose points.

Lawrence laughed loudly, "I have no idea why you're all worried. Charlie, in my opinion, is ready to be a professional hero. She's young but I've said it a million times, her threat assessment is the best I've ever seen." Lawrence shakes his head, "We'll have to make sure she gets a trustworthy agent," he said turning to look at his wife in excitement, not noticing how Cassandra's lip curled at his view on Charlie.

~ O ~

There were moments, when Rachel had to wonder if she should trust that Charlie knew what she was doing. These moments where she wondered if Charlie was secretly a genius or if she was an idiot, were not few and far between. In this particular case, the speed that Charlie had assigned people to teams, and where she had deployed each team, was worrying.

The teams had seemed to be assigned at random, as had the deployment. Santana's abilities were fire-based, sending her to fight a giant robot, when Charlie's powers were electricity and magnetism didn't make sense. Another thing that didn't make sense was the fact that she had been assigned to Charlie's team along with Artie. As far as she could tell there was no synergy between her and Artie's powers, and there were very few abilities that worked well with Charlie's power. "What's the plan?" Rachel asks Charlie immediately when they get to the base of the mountain.

Charlie doesn't answer immediately, instead she slowly lowers herself to the ground letting her feet touch the ground, as she closes her eyes and exhales slowly.

"What is she doing?" Artie whispers to Rachel.

Rachel shrugged her shoulders. She wished that they had gone over potential plans and scenarios, because as it stood she didn't know how she could impress the judges or even help out in this situation. "Charlie we need—" Rachel nearly bit her tongue, when Charlie raised her hand.

There's another moment of silence before Charlie finally turns to look at the team she had selected. The goal was to make them look as good as possible. "I've located all 15 civilians trapped under the snow, using the stretchers that they provided for us, Artie you're going to draw snow golems, something that can dig and place them on the stretchers. Rachel you'll be on healing duty." Charlie turns to watch as Artie begins to draw a large humanoid figure in the snow.

Rachel stared at Charlie puzzled, "They said that there were only 12 people trapped, Charlie. In the instructions for this zone, they said 12 people were currently missing."

Charlie turns, focusing "Three people don't have receivers, and I can sense bioelectric signals. I checked the entire mountain."

Rachel looked at the mountain range in front of her, even though it was a small zone, it was still a rather massive body. "Okay, but if we had Santana—"

"Lauren's abilities aren't the greatest in a giant robot attack Rachel. Santana might be able to melt snow, that would make the problem worse, the snow will get heavier. Any air pockets that they may be in may collapse, crushing and killing them. Plus she wouldn't have noticed the three hidden civilians, which are probably worth extra points. Which we will probably need if Santana can't handle a giant robot on her own."

"Done." Artie said as a massive snow-person suddenly roared to life getting up out of the snow.

"Can you control 5 at a time?" Charlie asks. That was how many stretchers that they had.

Artie nodded immediately. It would be a bit of a strain but he could certainly handle it. "Yeah, but how are we going to—" he stumbles back when Charlie flicks her finger, causing the snow golem to float a few inches above the ground.

"Everything is magnetic if your magnetic field is strong enough," Charlie reminded him. She turns to Rachel, "Get the blankets ready, this shouldn't take us that long at all, the moment that they start arriving. Start singing, healing them."

Rachel nodded, and moved immediately to set up a first aid station, she looked up to notice that Charlie had lifted herself out of earshot, so that their powers wouldn't interfere with one another. Maybe—just maybe she had underestimated Charlie, this plan sounded good and more importantly both she and Artie would be able to show off their skills.

~ O ~

The moment that Charlie had announced the breakdown of the teams and had given out deployments, Santana knew exactly what Charlie was expecting. It didn't take a genius to realize that Charlie had gone for efficiency because it was clear to everyone that Lauren was the weakest link.

"We're supposed to stop that!"

Santana ignored Kitty's outburst as she assessed the situation quickly. There wasn't much to assess; it was simply a giant robot attacking a city, she could see the flattened cars, the structural damage to several buildings as the robot tore the area apart. There were several civilians, rushing and screaming to get away. The zone certainly seemed as realistic as possible, there were downed power lines, with water spraying from hydrants that had been destroyed in the rampage.

"Santana what do we do?" Sam asked, looking at her.

Santana immediately turns to look at Kitty, "What's the maximum number of clones that you can make that isn't a strain?"

"I can make three copies of myself—"

"So four bodies?" When Kitty nods, Santana immediately turns back to the giant robot. "Matt I need you to take care of all the hazards, create a forcefield around it and help Kitty start evacuating the civilians, you're going to need to get them to the designated safe zone." Santana points the area out for them.

"What do I do?" Sam asks.

Santana hesitates, for a moment trying to figure out Charlie's line of thinking. To Charlie the simplest solution would be to simply stop the robot from rampaging so that they could take their time evacuating. But that didn't explain why she had assigned Trouty Mouth to her team. "If I'm going to take on that giant robot Sam, you need to handle debris. Matt can't create a force field big enough to help everyone, and there is a limit to how much damage his shields can take."

Sam nodded, that made sense and he was certain that he could do that without hurting anyone.

"Everyone understand what they have to do?" Santana asks.

"What will you be doing?" Kitty pressed.

"Taking out the threat, Matt I need you to be ready to create a massive forcefield around the giant robot once I give you the signal." Santana said as her flames roar to life. McKinley had never made it past the first round, but this year she had faith that they were going to be one of the five teams to go to Sectionals.

~ O ~

The tablet that her Aunt Cassandra had tossed at her, started to vibrate forcing Quinn to tear her eyes off the Avalanche rescue zone. She looks down at the tablet, noticing that several names were highlighted in varying hues of green. Charlie's name was the brightest and she looked over at Frannie. "Hey Frannie?"

Frannie doesn't look up from where she is scribbling some notes down as she flicked through different profiles. Unlike the rest of the family and most of the scouts and agents, she was focused on a different match. She would have to thank Charlie, because of her she was going to snag some diamonds in the rough. "What?"

"What does all the green mean?" Quinn asks.

"Real time interest in students. Charlie should be the brightest," Frannie looks up as a notification appears on her screen, and looks up at the board as Charlie's zone finishes. Each zone had a thirty minute time-limit. She was certain it hadn't even been ten minutes since she'd started. It takes a second before a time of seven minutes flashes on the screen. "McKinley just set a record for that event. And they just earned 30 bonus points to a perfect score. McKinley has 130 points," Frannie shakes her head before turning her attention back to the other zones that were going on. She still had time to take a closer look at McKinley. Plus she could always bully Charlie into making personal introductions.

Quinn grinned, Rachel's name had a steady glow of green around it. It wasn't as bright as Artie's but she'd generated interest. "Dr. Berry, Mr. Berry, Rachel's generating interest. It's a steady green." Quinn said, pointing Rachel's name out to them.

Leroy grinned proudly, "Does that device say which scouts are looking at her? Has she caught the eye of Summit yet?"

"They're probably bookmarking her profile, so they can take a deeper look when the reports come in," Frannie is about to make another note, when a bright red notification appears at the top of her screen. Immediately Frannie reads the notification and looks up immediately.

A team failing a zone, wasn't news. It certainly wasn't worthy of a notification. But in all the years she'd been doing this Frannie had never seen a judge requesting permission to intervene for the safety of the civilians and students. There was a commotion and Frannie looked up to check the scoreboards, McKinley's score had gone from a 330 in total points to 230. One zone had caused the loss of a 100 points. "What the fuck?" Frannie asks, turning to look at the hostage zone.

~ O ~

"Uh Lauren?" Finn called out, flinching when Lauren glared at him. "We can help, and this is supposed to be a team effort."

Lauren scowled, "It's a bank robbery, I didn't need a team this big to knock out a few thugs." She cracks her knuckles as she looks at the zone. "Wake up Finn, both Charlie and Santana are using this event to make themselves look good. This is my chance to shine, and I don't need you. I can and will handle this on my own."

Finn frowned, he knew he wasn't the smartest of guys, but nothing that Charlie or Santana had done had suggested that they were trying to screw Lauren over. What he did know was that rushing in was a terrible idea. Still he doesn't quite know what to do, as he looks at the other students. If Lauren didn't want to be in charge then he didn't mind doing then he would, but he wasn't sure what the plan was. Charlie hadn't given any explicit instructions.

Finn thinks hard, trying to remember everything that Charlie, Beiste and Santana had tried to tell him during practice. The first thing that he was supposed to do, was remind himself of the goal. Which was simple, they needed to rescue the hostages. Then Santana and Charlie had informed him to assess the situation. He turns to look at the bank for a moment and frowns he couldn't see through walls. How was he supposed to make decisions, when he couldn't see inside. "We can't see what's going on." Finn frowns rubbing the back of his neck, as he looks at the rest of his teammates. When Tina raises her hand, he puts on a dopey smile. "Yeah?"

"I c-can get into the building undetected, and figure out what's going on. You know—s-see how many bad guys there are. We do have our communicators, I can report and maybe we can take them out one by one. You can use your abilities to protect the hostages from gunfire, Ryder and Jake can help evacuate the building," Tina offers immediately, looking down and away.

"That's a great idea!" Finn said patting Tina on the back, he's about to go with it when he hesitates. "What about Lauren?"

"If she doesn't want to help the team out then forget about her, she can be the distraction," Jake says harshly.

Finn frowned before nodding, Lauren had insisted that she could do this on her own. They would just have to stay out of her way and focus on getting to the hostages and removing them from the situation. "Okay, let's do this." Tina immediately turns invisible, and Finn nods at the rest of the team. He was certain that they could do this, the plan was solid they just needed to get in.

Except instead of their simple seamless plan working, things immediately take a turn for the worst as Lauren smashes into the bank, sending bricks and shrapnel flying towards the hostages. There are screams, before the criminals who hadn't been swept up in Lauren's attack turn around and start shooting, the bullets bouncing off Lauren's body as she continues to move causing the bullets to ricochet.

There's a sudden scream, as one of the rubber bullets hits Tina causing her to invinsibility to fade, as she pops back into view in the middle of what was quickly becoming a shit show.

Lauren stops moving, "What the fuck are you doing here?" she snaps at Tina who is clutching at her arm. "I told you to stay the fuck out of my way!"

Finn and the rest of the team immediately springs into action, as Lauren picks up Tina and throws her out of the building, even through the gunfire. She frowns when she turns back to the criminals, her eyes focusing on the injured civilians, the blood seemed a touch too dramatic in her opinion. "All right, it's crushing time," Lauren smirked, turning her attention to the remainder of the criminals. She takes a step forward when one of the criminals grabs a civilian placing the muzzle of their gun against the civillian's temple.

"St-Stand back! Or I'll shoot!"

Laruen scoffed, "And then what? You shoot and then I put you in the ground. Or you can give up now." However instead of backing down the criminal digs the gun into the civillian's head and glares at her. Lauren sighed, it was his funeral.

But before Laruen can move or do anything the gun is suddenly wrenched from the man's hand. The gun spins in the air till it's pointed at the criminal who immediately scrambles back. "What the—"

Lauren blinks as suddenly all the weapons that had been discarded or were still in the hands of the enemy suddenly start to float and are pointed at the criminals. It takes her a moment before she wheels around to see Charlie floating behind her, a look of irritation and disappointment etched onto her features. Lauren inhales sharply, before scowling at Charlie. "I had everything under control, go back to your zone."

Charlie raises a brow, before turning to look at the rest of the team. "What are you waiting for, start evacuating the building, the structure is no longer sound." Charlie ordered the rest of the team, her tone was harsh and immediately Finn, Jake and Ryder scramble to start the evacuation. Charlie doesn't bother to look at Lauren as she walks past her and helps one of the civilians up.

"I could have handled it. I was handling it." Lauren snaps her cheeks flushing red in anger and embarrassment.

Charlie stops and finally turns to look at Lauren, "What I witnessed and what I heard wasn't you handling it. Being physical with Tina by throwing her out of the building after getting her shot? Not handling it. You are so far removed from handling it Lauren. As of right now you're done, when we get back to the locker room you'll give a report and I'll figure out what to do with you then."

"Are you fucking—" Lauren stops and stares at Charlie a cold chill running down her spine. Her skin prickled, and there was a thick smell of ozone in the air, as she stumbled back. She's tempted to push back but now wasn't the time. "Whatever."

Charlie watches as Lauren leaves before turning her attention back to the civilians. "Rachel is waiting in the safe zone. Get them there." Charlie orders briskly. They would all have to explain. She suspected that this entire mess was Lauren's but there was certainly plenty of blame to go around. She should have gone with her gut instinct and chosen Finn.

There's a loud creak, and Charlie pulls away from the civilian to reinforce the existing structure with her magnetism. Lauren in her rush had knocked over several load bearing pillars. There was no salvaging this zone, and she could only hope that Santana didn't fuck up. They just needed 30 points to get to the next round. Sending Artie to help Santana out had been the correct decision, but it didn't stop her from worrying.

~ O ~

"Good job you guys," Santana says to her team, trying to keep the massive grin off her face. She didn't want to seem too excited, but it was hard to keep the smile off her face when she had seen the score that they'd been given. Sure it had taken them the full thirty minutes to evacuate everyone, and get them to the safe zone. But this had been the first Inter-High where she'd been able to simply focus on one task without having to micromanage everyone else. "An eighty is a really good score guys, and thanks to Artie showing up we managed to snag another 10 points, for a total of 90." Santana wiped a bit of sweat from her brow.

"Did we get enough points to get to the next round?" Sam asked. He was certain that he was at fault for losing them the twenty points. He'd tripped activating his powers and had nearly bowled into a group of civilians.

Santana was about to cheerfully inform Sam that they had made it when she realizes that half of their team is missing. She scans the area, but doesn't spot them immediately so she turns to Artie. "Where are they? You guys did manage to earn points right?"

"We got a perfect score and Charlie managed to pick up 30 bonus points, there were three civilians that didn't have a beacon. I don't know how they are going to calculate it, but at minimum we have 190 points. Which means we're definitely through to the next round," Artie stated. He frowns and turns to look for Charlie and the others. He spots Lauren approaching them and waves her over, "It looks like they're still calculating the score for zone 19. Are they on their way?"

Lauren scowled and shoved the freshman away from her, but the action causes Santana to step forward, "How the fuck should I know, our Captain decided to fuck me, and embarass me in front of all the scouts and agents. Just because she had to show off."

Santana rolled her eyes, she was beyond tired of Lauren's incessant bitching. "Why would Charlie show off Lauren? She doesn't need the Inter-High, not like we do. Look, I get it, but Charlie's not on our level. While we're waiting and hoping that we get recruited to a school, Charlie's debating on whether she wants to go pro the moment she turns 18 and graduates, or if she wants to go to Summit. So what reason does she have to screw you? To screw any of us?"

"How the fuck did we get a zero?" Kitty asked loudly causing everyone to turn to look up at the scoreboard. Sure enough, beside Zone 19 was a zero. There had been no bonus points awarded.

With a total score of 220, McKinley was now in seventh place. Santana stared at their placement, she had expected a far better score. Even if Lauren's team had done poorly, she should have still had a few points left on the weren't expecting perfection they were expecting basic competence. "What the fuck did you do?" Santana hissed as she slowly turned to Lauren.

"Me? I had everything handled before Charlie runs in to save the day," Lauren snaps back, flushing when she notices that at least half the team is giving her a look.

Santana's about to call bullshit when she spots Finn and the rest of the team slowly making their way back to the team, "Where's Charlie?"

Finn made a face and looked away, "Talking to the organizer with Coach Beiste. The moment that we finished, there were judges and people who looked absolutely pissed. I think they want to kick us out of the tournament. No one has ever gotten a zero before."

Santana stared at Finn, and resisted the urge to turn on Lauren, they were still being watched and she doubted it would play well if she burned Lauren alive. "What happened? Finn—what happened." Santana repeats forcefully noting how beaten up Tina looked.

Finn rubs his arm, "Lauren went off on her own, she told us she could handle it. I thought that we should have a plan just in case. You know where we worked together. It would have worked, but then Lauren crashed into the building, injured Tina and threw her out, and that's all we saw for a little while. There were gunshots—but then Charlie came in and took over the situation. Some of the fake civilians were actually injured."

Santana swallowed her rage, she wanted to yell, but yelling at Finn would be misplaced. The person who had nearly cost them everything was Lauren. The temperature around her rises, and she can feel people scrambling back as she focuses on Lauren. "Are you—"

"Santana."

Santana wheels around to look at Charlie who touches down beside her. She immediately scans the area, but she doesn't spot Beiste, and she can't see Rachel. "Where are Rachel and the Beiste? And what did they say? Are we being kicked out?"

Charlie's lip curls up in annoyance, "No. Partly because most of the scouts and agents are here because they want to sign me. Sending us home, means sending them home. That being said, we were also allowed to stay because of the excellent work done by Santana's group, my group, and Finn—Tina, Jake and Ryder, you all showed that you belong here, and are at least deserving of a second chance." Charlie glanced at Lauren, "You'll be benched until further notice. If you want to complain, take it up with Beiste. If you want to quit, do it after Regionals."

Lauren's jaw dropped at the unfairness of it all, and she forms a fist with her hands. "I had things under control."

Charlie didn't bother to dignify that with an answer. "We have time before the next event starts. So lets get Tina to the medical tent, and get some food and water. Hydrate people, it's only going to get tougher from here on out." Charlie turns to fly off before she pauses. She studies her team for a moment, "You all did really good work, I'll review the footage and go over where I think we can improve. Santana—you're in charge. I'm going to go see what the scouts and agents are saying. We'll see who needs to be featured more at the next event. Whatever that event is. "