Maybe it was the way Charlie's head snapped back, or the way her body crumpled, but for the briefest moment Santana Lopez was worried. Which was probably the only reason her feet involuntarily took a few steps towards Charlie's body. Blaine hadn't been holding back, and she had felt the force of that blow despite being so far away—Charlie hadn't been using her abilities, which meant that she could be seriously hurt.

"Holy shit."

Santana flicked her eyes over to Artie who looked just as shocked as she felt. She had known that Charlie wasn't invincible. She just didn't think that anyone at the highschool level could beat her, even with a massive handicap. In fact the only person who didn't have a shocked look on their face was Lauren, who looked positively thrilled that Charlie wasn't at her best. Her gaze quickly returns back to Beiste who is leaning over Charlie, checking on her, and she's about to say something when Beiste suddenly stumbles back, as arcs of lightning start coming off Charlie's body, and Charlie immediately struggles to stand back up.

Beiste immediately gets back and puts her arm around Charlie's waist, yanking her back and forcing the teen to look at her. "Fight's over Charlie. You lost," Beiste said firmly, as Charlie struggles against her. She was disorientated, and the moment that Charlie had a moment to catch her breath she was going to send Charlie to the school nurse to go through the concussion protocols that she had enacted. It takes a few more seconds before Charlie's brain finally seems to register her words, and she stops moving.

"Oh." Charlie said indifferently, as she rubs her jaw and chin. "I guess he made the team, so long as he doesn't throw any more fights."Charlie said after a moment as she blinks, and shakes her head as if trying to shake the fuzzy feeling in her mind away. She was definitely concussed. It wasn't her first one, and she personally doubted it would be her last one.

Beiste frowned, "Charlie, you didn't use your abilities. You didn't even augment your physical body with your abilities, as I know you're capable of. I knew you were proficient at hand to hand combat, any professional or olympic level talent could beat you," Beiste counters immediately. Charlie getting knocked out before five minutes, was certainly a surprise but it was predictable, her actions had been reckless. Plus, having Blaine on the team meant that she would have to deal with his brother, and she didn't trust him.

Charlie closed her eyes hoping that the dizziness would pass, but it doesn't and it makes this conversation harder. Everything felt fuzzy, like she was swimming through cotton. "He's strong, and he's useful. Even without my powers, it's still hard to knock me out, but he did." Charlie points out, her jaw ached.

Lauren takes a step forward, breaking away from the rest of the team. She had always figured that Santana would make a play for Charlie's captaincy, but even Santana looked frozen in shock, which meant that this was her moment. Taking advantage of Charlie while she was weakened was simply a smart strategy. "Might makes right. Isn't that what you told me when you said that if I beat you, I could be captain."

There was a moment—a brief second of silence as everyone turned to look at Lauren. Santana found her voice first, "Have you lost your mind?" Santana pointed to Charlie who still looked unsteady on her feet. "She's in no condition to fight."

Lauren met Sanana's gaze, "I thought you of all people would step up, but the challenge was for any time. She didn't put a caveat, and she's finally vulnerable. I know you're fucking, but I thought you were more ambitious. You know she's a shitty captain. She was handed this position and I plan on taking it from her."

Santana scowls, she's about to say something when Rachel beats her to the punch. "Lauren, even if you win this fight that doesn't mean anyone on the team is going to follow you. I will quit in protest if you win."

"Me too," Finn said following Rachel's lead, stepping in front of Rachel when Lauren scowled at her.

"Charlie's our captain, and we can't get to nationals without her. So she has my vote," Kitty said with a shrug. "I agree with Rachel."

"M-me too." Tina adds her voice in.

There is a chorus of agreements, from the rest of the team but Lauren shrugs. "I don't care, I know I can build a better team. You were holding me back anyway."

Blaine blinked, he hadn't expected his actions to cause the team to implode. He shifts and hangs back, unsure what to do, or which side to take. He wasn't even sure he had made the team. "Uh—"

Beiste rolled her eyes and was about to step in front of Charlie to protect her from Lauren, the toxicity that Lauren had spewed had finally reached a fever pitch and she wasn't going to stand for it anymore. "Lauren I don't—"

"Okay."

Beiste wheels around to look at Charlie, she still looked uncertain on her feet. "Charlie, we have protocols in place, and you more than likely have a concussion, if you take any more blows to the head, and the damage—there's a good chance you might not be ready for sectionals. It might lead to some permanent damage that the school will be—"

Lauren's grin stretched across her entire face as she pushed Beiste aside, she didn't care what Beieste had to say, her only goal was to break Charlie in half, and with her wobbling around like that she would manage to get it done. She didn't care if the team imploded, she needed the bragging rights that came with beating a level 5. "When I win, you have to go on television and announce to the world that I beat you."

Charlie tilted her head, immediately realizing it was a mistake as it set off another round of vertigo. She closes her eyes to steady herself, and takes a breath, before opening her eyes to see Lauren had dropped down and seemed to be getting ready to tackle her. Even with her mind being as fuzzy as it was, she had to wonder if Lauren had thought things through. She hadn't stopped being a level 5 just because she had a concussion. "I'm sorry."

Lauren scowled, and immediately sprung forward running as fast as she could towards Charlie who was only a few yards away. She immediately moves to slam her hand into Charlie's chest and finish the job that Blaine had started when she feels it—the pain of a pulled muscle in her leg. She immediately grimaces, but decides to push through, her adrenaline was running and she would only have one chance at this. But the pain in her leg begins to slowly spread, as her muscles begin to spasm violently, forcing her body to stop, all momentum lost as she struggles to breathe. She had no idea how Charlie was doing this, but it had to be her. She drops to her knees a few feet away from Charlie, who is slowly pulling off the ring that was around her thumb.

Santana immediately flinches as the ring begins to spin on Charlie's outstretched hand, the ring glowing. The last time she had seen this it could have killed her if Charlie's grandmother hadn't intervened. There had been far more space in between them at the time. "Clear the area," the words are out of her mouth before she can truly process them. "Clear the fucking area," Santana barked out causing the team to scatter backing away and giving Charlie and Lauren a wide berth.

Charlie adjusted her stance, making sure that she would keep her balance as she looked at Lauren. She grimaced, she lacked finesse and control, when her mind was like this. But she needed to make a point, because she was personally sick of Lauren's shit. The ring that was floating and rotating in her hand suddenly stops and begins to glow a bright red, and she takes careful aim, and fires off her ring, with enough force to cause her to take a few steps back.

Beiste watches in horror as the projectile, cuts into Lauren's face, skimming over her cheek and searing the flesh closed, as it rips away part of Lauren's ear and continues traveling through the air before piercing the bleachers and embedding itself into Figgin's car, igniting the fuel and causing his newly replaced car to explode, destroying the rest of the bleachers. Beiste's jaw hangs agape, as bits of metal and plastic begin to rain onto the field. "Shit."

Charlie studied the damage that she had caused and then remembers that she still has Lauren locked in place and lets her go, ignoring her screams of pain as she turns around and immediately loses her lunch all over the field and then takes a seat on the ground.

Shannon's mind immediately reboots, and she immediately moves to check in on Lauren who is still clutching her face and screaming in agony. She manages to pry Lauren's hand away, so she can take a look and immediately winced. It was bad, even with the skin that looked like it had melted, she could see bone, whatever Charlie had fired had cut deep and had damaged the bone. A normal healer wouldn't be able to fix the damage. She wasn't even sure that a plastic surgeon could fix the damage. "Santana, get Charlie to the nurse. Lauren needs medical attention immediately, I'll be taking her to the hospital." Beiste orders. She would have a long discussion with her captain.

~ O ~

Quinn checked her rear-view mirror once more to make sure that her hair and makeup was perfect. She wasn't usually big on the makeup, but she had wanted to make sure that she looked her best. She certainly felt like she was at her best.

Today was the day. The day that she was going to graduate from making out with Marley on the backseat of her car. It wasn't as if Quinn didn't have a newfound appreciation for the backseat of her car, but the kissing and the touching was only riling her up. It wasn't just kissing there was heavy petting and every time she stopped it before it went too far, she wasn't going to lose her virginity in the backseat of a car.

Marley wasn't working tonight, and her mother wouldn't be home too late. Sure there wasn't much room on Marley's bed, but she would make it work. She had to make it work. Normally she never took much credence with any of her sibling's love lives, but Frannie was pregnant, Charlie was some idiot savant and Brittany ended up having sex with whoever she wanted, and she wanted to be good at it. While she had no intention of giving her sisters the details of her sex life she wanted to at least be able to confidently tell them that she was just as good as they were.

Quinn is about to do a quick breath test when there is a knock on her passenger side glass, causing her to look up and grin when she saw Marley. She turns and unlocks her doors, so Marley can throw her bag on the back seat and join her up on the passenger side. "Hey," Quinn says breathlessly leaning forward so she could kiss Marley. "How was the first day back?"

"It was boring," Marley admits with a laugh and reaches for Quinn's hand. "You?"

"Same," Quinn says quickly, tracing her thumb over Marley's hand. She didn't want to seem too eager, but she can't help but lean in for another kiss, from everything she had read on the various forums foreplay was important.

"I mean it was pretty boring until Charlie texted me at lunch."

Quinn froze, and the temperature in the car dropped causing Marley to look at her in surprise. "She did what?"

It takes Marley a second to realize why Quinn was suddenly anxious, and she gently squeezes Quinn's hand to reassure her. "Not like that Quinn. She's your twin, and I honestly don't think she actually listens to anything I've said. She might still be annoyed at me for you know—giving her a black eye over the break."

"Should have aimed for her mouth," Quinn muttered under her breath. "Besides, you're hardly the first person to give Charlie a black eye. What did she want?"

"She asked if I was any good at support," Marley admitted fishing out her phone and handing it to Quinn so she could have a look. "I mean I told her what I was currently working on—and I mean I know I sent her a lot of information but I think she could have done better than to respond with just a thumbs up emoji," Marley rolled her eyes.

Quinn blinked, the emoji definitely sounded like Charlie, but Charlie actually talking to Marley was weird. It wasn't just because Charlie knew that Marley was off-limits, but Charlie didn't have a high opinion on support items in general. "She wants something from you." The words came tumbling out and Quinn scowled, Charlie wasn't even here and she was cockblocking her.

Marley let out a small laugh, "Quinn, Charlie dislikes me because I didn't let her sneak into the nude modelling class to stare at our models. I promise that I'll say no to whatever she wants from me." Marley flashes Quinn a smile, "Now instead of talking about your twin, can we stop somewhere on the way back, I need to pick up some components for a new design that I have in mind."

"I thought—" Quinn immediately clammed up when Marley looked at her.

"You thought?" Marley prompts, reaching to gently poke Quinn in her side, and she can't help but smile when Quinn jerks away and protects her weak spot. "Quinn. I have no powers, I can't read minds."

"No one can read minds," Quinn corrects absentmindedly. "And if they could the government would snap them up the moment that they presented.

"Quinn," Marley said patiently.

Quinn made a face, she couldn't admit that she was hoping to have sex with Marley, "That we could you know make out more before your mom gets home," it's more or less true. With how hard Millie worked, there was a good chance that she wouldn't be back until the evening, which gave them time to do it, and help Marley make dinner for her mother.

"I just need to pick up a few components, Quinn. I'll be out in five minutes tops!" Marley promises.

"You said that last time and we were there for 2 hours," Quinn reminded Marley, who flushed in embarrassment. Quinn lets out an indulgent sigh, as much as she really wanted today to be the day that she lost her virginity, she didn't mind going to the component store with Marley. She had managed to get her hand on a new set of paint brushes. "Are you doing anything this weekend?"

"I work this Sunday," Marley makes a face.

Quinn nodded, "Well then we have Saturday together, no components, no art, just a you and me day?" Quinn offers.

Marley nodded after a second, "I like the sound of that. What do you have in mind?"

"It's a surprise," Quinn says, she would definitely need to think of something by Saturday, but she had the rest of the week to plan the ultimate romantic day. Maybe she could get a hotel room for a couple of hours, a nice one not one of those rent-by-the hour places.

~ O ~

"Pssst, Santana," Charlie loudly whispered despite the fact that Santana was currently helping her to the nurses. "Pssst, Santana," Charlie repeats, her whisper even louder than this time when Santana ignores her.

Santana rolled her eyes, having a concussion clearly just made Charlie more annoying than normal. "What?"

"I know what will make me feel better," Charlie insists, a pleased smile on her face as she looks at Santana.

"A trip to see Brittany?" Santana asks with a roll of her eyes.

Charlie pauses, almost comically, she hadn't thought about that at all. She makes a face, "I don't want to see Brittany in a sexy nurses outfit."

Santana blinked, and looked over at Charlie. Practice had hurt more than she thought it would, and she knew it looked like she had lost a step, but fight club was hard. It was harder than she thought it would be, getting naked with Charlie would lead to some uncomfortable questions. "I think I'll pass on that Vomit Breath." With a bit of effort Santana helps Charlie into the nurses room and helps her onto the examination table.

"So if my breath didn't smell of vomit?" Charlie asks with a smile.

Santana resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "Do you need me to call one of your sisters? Brittany could heal Lauren's face so maybe this doesn't become a big thing."

"Brittany's a level 3," Charlie points out.

Santana frowned at this, Charlie couldn't possibly think that she was that oblivious. "You don't need to lie to me. I'm not going to rat your sister out, I like Brittany she's fun."

"I know you know. I'm saying Brittany's officially a level 3, she can't fix Lauren's face," Charlie frowns and sits up so she can look at Santana carefully, she gives up after a second when she starts to see double. "I trust you. I don't trust Lauren with Brittany's secret."

Santana flushed, suddenly feeling embarrassed for getting so defensive. "Oh." She clears her throat. "Probably a good call, Lauren would probably blab."

There is a brief moment of comfortable silence as Charlie lays on the examination table and closes her eyes. "So why are you mad at me?"

"I'm not mad at you," Santana responded without hesitation.

"Now who's lying," Charlie retorts. "It's not fun when you ignore me."

"Careful Smurfette, someone might mistake you for a masochist." When Charlie just turns to look at her Santana makes a face, "I'm not your sidekick."

"Obviously. Sam's my sidekick. I mean I haven't exactly done anything with him, or mentored him, heck I barely talk to the guy, but he's my sidekick."

Santana snorted, she almost felt sorry for Sam. Almost. "If Sam's your sidekick, then what am I?"

Charlie frowned, "What do you mean, you're the only person on the team that I trust completely. I mean you're basically my co-captain without the title, Beiste refuses to give you the title because she thinks it will go to your head."

It's a surprise that Charlie rates her so highly and once again she feels a bit ridiculous for her insecurities, but her parents and abuela's words were still echoing in the back of her mind. "Then why'd you go to LA without me?" When Charlie shoots her a confused look. "You said the next time you went, we'd go and go mess with your old school and then we'd paint your sister's nursery."

Charlie is quiet for a moment, and she struggles for the words. "I like to do chores, I like to work with my hands especially when there is a lot on my mind. Ever since regionals my mother has been treating me differently, she's afraid of me. Frannie helped. We still have to paint her nursery. She didn't like the yellow I picked out. She wants to have a bunch of different colors and then choose which one she thinks looks best."

"You picked yellow?" Santana frowns, wrinkling her nose in disgust.

"It's a gender neutral color," Charlie says defensively.

"Yeah, but I mean it's Frannie's baby, shouldn't you have asked her what color she wanted in the baby room? She's the one that has to live with it." Santana points out. "Also I bet you picked the first yellow you saw and it was ugly."

Charlie huffed, "There are like a hundred different shades of yellow Santana, of course I picked the first one I saw! It's yellow." She waves her hand dismissively. "We can head to LA this weekend in the afternoon. PVA always had practice on Saturday mornings."

Before Santana can say anything, the door to the nurses office slams open causing her to jump and immediately flare up in case it was Lauren, but it was just Rachel with Charlie's grandparents. She immediately stops using her abilities and steps aside as both Lawrence and Artemis move to check on Charlie. "That was quick," she murmurs to Rachel.

"They were already here, they were in a meeting with Figgins, when he got the call that another one of his cars was destroyed," Rachel hesitates for a moment, she and Santana weren't friends. "Did you see Lauren's face?"

"There aren't any healers in Lima who can fix that," Santana said, the damage was extensive. "Lauren should have never challenged Charlie while she was concussed," any other injury and it would have probably been a fair fight, but it was clear that Charlie's aim, and more importantly her control were shot, which made Charlie far more dangerous.

"I don't think Beiste wanted Blaine on the team, but we don't have a choice now. I don't think Lauren's going to continue being on the team—she was our third strongest member, and while my abilities have grown I'm not as strong as my mother."

"Blaine knocked her out, he can take Lauren's place but we need to make sure he's trustworthy, he was eating lunch with Wheezy and Porcelain. Check with them to make sure he isn't a spy. It's going to get out that Charlie lost to Blaine, no one is going to care that Charlie wasn't using her abilities, might be good to use these rumors to our advantage."

"I'll talk to Kurt and Mercedes. I think I have a lead on getting us some support members for our team. I don't think Charlie's going to be much use, but she can make the introduction. Perhaps it is something that we can do together. We need to have a support team, if we hope to compete. You and Charlie are strong—"

"Alright," Santana interrupts, they both needed to do whatever it took to get the win.

~ O ~

"You beat her!" Cooper laughed running a hand through his hair as he stared at his younger brother, watching the footage of Blaine knocking Charlie out, he could practically feel the force from the blow through his cell phone screen. "Once this gets out, you'll have all the top schools lining up to recruit you." Blaine was his ticket out of Lima. Out of Ohio and into the big leagues.

Blaine rubbed his arm, "She wasn't using her powers, she didn't use her powers once, not even when she was losing. A lot of the top heroes aren't exactly hand-to-hand combat specialists, I could beat a lot of them in a simple fight."

"Who cares, she's the hottest recruit in the country now, and you knocked her out." He still couldn't believe it, his little brother was going to be famous.

Blaine frowned, Cooper wasn't listening. "She wasn't using her abilities Cooper and even then it wasn't actually easy to knock her out. I was barely holding anything back with that punch, she's strong, she's far stronger than she has any right to be. She's quick, her blows are heavy—this could have been a disaster if I hadn't gone out there without the intention of knocking her out. She also knows how to fight, she lost because she didn't use her abilities." Blaine shudders, he had gotten a glimpse of Lauren's face, he had heard her screams of agony. It was something that would haunt him.

"I know she's dangerous Blaine, I'm not an idiot, but she chose not to use her abilities, she chose that, she chose to give you a fair shot and I think you shattered her expectations—like you nearly shattered her jaw. It might not feel like a win to you, but it is. It doesn't matter that Beiste doesn't want you on the team, Charlie does, because even with a concussion she saw your worth. You belong, so stop putting yourself down and even if that wasn't the case they need you. McKinley has the minimum amount of students required to compete, and that girl probably isn't coming back. They need you, even if at this moment they don't realize it. So you need to get over it, and focus on getting to know your new teammates. They need to trust you, and I'll be there to help you."

Blaine nodded, before letting out a breath. "I promised I'd tell Kurt how it went, he's probably still in the theater."

Cooper nodded, "I'll start introducing myself to the rest of the team as the assistant coach," Cooper said. "I'll find out where you stand with them and see who you should get close to."

Blaine nodded absentmindedly, he didn't want to be on another team like Dalton, where the only thing that mattered was results. He hadn't spoken to anyone since the team had been forcibly disbanded, he wanted to make friends. He wanted a boyfriend who didn't treat him like Sebastian had treated him.

~ O ~

Beiste paced in the waiting room, as she waited for news. She'd already notified Lauren's parents and they were on their way to the hospital, this was a disaster. She never should have allowed the fight to go on, there was nothing more dangerous than a cornered injured animal.

It was a technique that she'd never seen Charlie use before and given the damage to Lauren's face—it meant that Charlie knew how dangerous the move was, and had decided to use it anyway. She could already tell that this was a lawsuit waiting to happen, unless she managed to get in touch with the healer that had regrown Charlie's arm.

"Beiste," Dr. Lopez called out from where he was currently in scrubs. He motions her over, Lauren's parents still weren't here, and at this point Beiste was Lauren's legal guardian. "We're not sure if we're going to need surgery, just yet, her eye is our main concern. Whatever happened to her weakened the surrounding structures, the muscles that hold the eye in place."

"She might lose the eye?"

"We'll do everything in our power to prevent that, we've already gathered all the best healers in the hospital, to help stabilize the surgery Beiste, but I make no promises. Now I need to go scrub in. I'll make sure to keep you updated."

"Her parents are on their way," Beiste informs him, closing her eyes. This was a disaster, and she needed to get her hands on the healer who replaced Charlie's arm.