"I may have been too generous, when I said that everyone could try out," Beiste wrinkled her nose as she looked at the stack of names on the sign up sheet. She turns to look at her captain who is sipping on an energy drink, a bored expression on her face. "I think your sister is the only one who didn't sign up."

Charlie flicked her eyes to the numerous sign up sheets, and took a sip of her energy drink. "Quinn's not interested in being a hero," she reminds Beiste who rolls her eyes. "Do I get to miss class for this? There's no way that we're going to get through that entire list before the end of the week otherwise."

Shannon frowned, she had to agree with Charlie's assessment. "I just wanted to give these kids something to look forward to. It's true that most of them don't have what it takes, but William was only going by power level, there could be some hidden gems at this school." Beiste looks up at Charlie, who was trying to get every drop out of the can. "You planned on opening your own firm, and as a level 5, you would have hundreds of applications, how would you determine who you wanted in your firm."

"Simple, I'd fight them."

Beiste blinked, at Charlie's simple answer. "What?"

"I'd fight them. It's the simplest way for me to assess people's abilities and skill level. Saving people can be taught, unless you're an idiot. But seeing how creative someone is, seeing how skilled they are with their abilities, sure we can help them get stronger, but—the only way I know to test someone's skills is to fight them. Nothing is more honest than a good old fashion scrap. This of course doesn't work with people with more support based abilities. But that is fixable, have them in a support role like you would in the field. It will be wise to pair support heroes with more frontline heroes."

Beiste was quiet for a moment, and then looked at Charlie and then the sign-up sheets, "Can you do groups of five?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?" Charlie scoffed. These weren't pro heroes, they were a bunch of rather complacent teenagers. If she couldn't handle 5 teenagers at a time, then she'd hand back her provisional license.

"I meant without hurting them," Beiste clarified. When Charlie hesitates, "Within reason, as in scrapes and bruises."

Charlie shrugged, "Sure."

Beiste smiled, "Then I think then this is the perfect time to play heroes and villains."

~ O ~

"This is such bullshit," Dave muttered under his breath.

"It's a waste of time is what it is," Azimio responded as he turned to glance at the two freshmen that they had been paired with. "Half the school already dropped out when they heard that they'd have to go against that monster, so the team is basically going to look like what it did before."

Rick followed Azimio's gaze and frowned when he spotted one of the freshmen carrying a notebook. "What are you going to do with that? Draw her a picture? How's that useful?"

"L-leave h-him alone."

Dave turned to look at the girl who had spoken up, "Or you'll what?" When she flinches he scoffs as a buzzer is heard letting them know that it was time for them to make their way to the field. "Whatever, just stay out of our way."

The moment that Karofsky is out of earshot, the boy in glasses lets out a shaky breath that he hadn't been sure that he'd been holding and grips his notebook tighter. "You okay Tina?"

Tina nods and looks at him as they begin to make their way to the field. "Do you think your plan will work, Artie?" she whispers looking up at the three seniors, flinching when Rick shoots her a glare.

Artie nods confidently. "While she's dealing with those dumbasses, I'll draw a distraction. It's paper so it's not magnetic, that should give you enough time to use your camouflage and sneak up behind her and steal the flag. We'll win. We'll be the only ones that actually beat her," he whispers back.

"Draw something big," Tina whispers as they finally hit the field. Charlie is standing in the middle of it, a flag floating in the air behind her. Tina takes a deep breath and stretches as she focuses on the flag. Even though nearly half the school had dropped out, that still left a little over 500 people to test. It was why they were currently fighting in small teams of five.

To get to the next stage of tryouts, they needed to get past Charlie literally. The only guaranteed way into the next stage was to beat Charlie as a team. They had three possible ways to do that. They could attempt the impossible, which would be attempting to subdue Charlie. They could try the less painful route of attempting to force Charlie to drop the flag, with a lapse of concentration. Or they could try to outsmart Charlie by using their abilities to get behind her and grab the flag. They didn't need to move it; all they needed was to touch it.

If they could do that then they could get to the more personalized try-out. If they couldn't, they'd have to hope that their performance warranted further inspection. Charlie or Beiste could single out a student to go through to the next round.

Tina swallowed as she watched their target. Once the whistle sounded they would have five minutes to figure out a way to get their hands on that flag. She glances over at Artie who has a black sharpie ready. She flashes him a small smile, before she hears the shrill whistle from Beiste signifying the start of the action.

Artie's hands become a blur of motion as he starts to draw a flock of birds. They're just little checkmarks on his pad but they come alive as angry crows, darting towards Charlie at a high speed, even as Azimio takes a swing at Charlie who twists out of the way and flicks her wrist as the paper is hit by arcs of lightning causing them to explode into fiery bits of paper.

Charlie twists once more and a thin metal band flies from her hand and wraps around Azimio's feet, tripping him as he falls flat on his face. Before he can get up his body is suddenly flipped upside down. He's simply held in place, wriggling as Charlie moves on.

Artie winces, and wonders if he should make an attempt to free Azimio, as he ducks behind the bleachers. He opens his notebook again and begins to draw as quickly as he could. He should have remembered to bring one of his old notebooks, that way he would have had a paper army on hand. He looks up quickly when he hears Karofsky start cursing as he's caught by Charlie. He couldn't see Tina which meant that she was camouflaged and approaching the flag. He finishes drawing a wolf which tears from the page and makes a rush towards Charlie.

Again there is lightning and his paper wolf catches on fire as Charlie gives her attention to Rick, who was currently sending blasts of air towards Charlie who seemed to weave around them. But before he can finish drawing his t-rex, he hears Tina scream, before the string of obscenities from Rick.

"Shit. Shit. Shit," Artie mumbled as he drew faster before a massive t-rex appeared, it was made out of paper and once again Charlie set it on fire as she floated towards him. Artie scrambled back, as he realized that Charlie had captured all four of his teammates. The smart thing to do would be to give up and forget his dream of ever being a hero. But if this was his one shot to impress Beiste then he was going to take it. He begins to draw birds as quickly as he can again as he makes a mad dash towards the flag.

He feels a cold metal clamp wrap around his ankles, throwing him off balance, and knocking his artbook and sharpie out of his hands. Before he can hit the ground he's suddenly yanked up and is left hanging upside down by the metal band around his ankles. Artie grabs onto his glasses and notices that his pen is just out of his reach and makes an attempt for it. If he could get it, then he could draw on his clothes and free himself.

Before the tips of his finger can reach the pen he's suddenly pulled quickly towards the middle of the field, where Beiste is making notes. The buzzer sounds indicating that they had just run out of time. He looks over at Tina who looks just as disappointed as he felt. Their plan had been foolproof but Charlie had known exactly where she was.

Beiste finishes writing down her notes and looks up. "Tina Cohen-Chang, congrats you've made it to the next round."

Tina's eyes widened. "R-really?"

Beiste nodded, "Good job. Charlie?"

Charlie moves towards Artie and sets him down on his feet. "Can you draw robots?"

Artie blinked, "Uh—yes?"

"This one!" Charlie points to him.

Beiste flicked through the pictures that she had and nodded. If Charlie hadn't said anything she would have invited him to join as well. "Artie Abrams, you made it to the next round."

"Are you kidd—" A metal band clamped around Karofksy's mouth preventing him from finishing.

Beiste looked at him for a moment before nodding at Quinn who groaned before pressing the buzzer for the next team to get to the field.

~ O ~

Sam Evans swallows nervously, 25 teams had made an attempt to get to the next round. Not a single team had passed. And as far as he knew only three people had been asked to continue to the next round. Two freshmen like him, and one senior. He feels a heavy hand patting him on the back and turns to look at the junior who flashes him a rather dopey looking smile.

"Finn," he introduces himself.

"Sam," Sam mumbles.

"You look like you're about to pass out, Sam." Finn said patting him on the shoulder. "All you need to do is go out there and have fun. We're missing class, even if we get our asses handed to us. At least we'll be able to tell our kids that we fought against one of the top heroes back when she was still in highschool."

"That's rather optimistic," Another voice calls Finn out on his optimistic bullshit.

Finn's face fell and he looks up at Lauren Zizes, "I just—"

"There's no point in being here if you aren't attempting to win. Heroes win, they have to, if you don't have the stones to be out there then go home," Lauren snapped at them, "Stop wasting everyone's time."

Sam flinched when the buzzer sounded and they began to make their way to the field. "Don't trip, don't trip," he mumbles under his breath, hoping the mantra works.

"You'll be fine Sam," Finn says, patting him on the back before he moves to find a perfect spot to launch an attack from.

Sam glances don't at his two feet, "Don't trip," he snaps at them as he looks up at Charlie who looks utterly bored.

The shrill whistle starts, and before anyone can do anything about it Lauren begins to march towards Charlie who flicks her wrist at her, and a metal band shoots for her legs, only to break as Lauren keeps moving forward.

Charlie's brow furrows as her feet touch the ground as she focuses on attempting to bring Lauren down. It's at that moment that Finn attempts to pounce on her. Charlie dodges, and a metal clamp wraps around Finn's feet, as Charlie sends him flying to collide into Zizes but he only gets batted away.

Lauren suddenly picks up speed and Charlie takes a step back, her arm lightning arcing around it, a smile on her face as Zizes is suddenly hit with bolts of electricity. It's not enough to stop her and she shrugs it off and keeps picking up speed as she continues to make her way to Charlie, a completely unstoppable force.

Sam begins to run towards the flag, but he suddenly trips, activating his abilities as he's suddenly propelled forward. He could feel the build up in his legs, as he suddenly picks up speed.

Charlie turns to see a blur of a body heading towards the flag, bouncing on the ground creating small craters. She turns her attention back to Zizes for a moment, before choosing the most pressing threat. It was the first time all day she'd been put on the backfoot.

Everything seems to happen at once, as Charlie twists her body out of Lauren's way, she uses her abilities of magnetism to give her a small boost, sending her body flying towards the bleachers. It was followed by another loud crash as Sam crashes into an invisible barrier. There's a clash of lightning as Sam attempts to push past the magnetic forcefield.

Charlie's eyes narrow and she flicks her wrist, it sounds like a bat hitting a baseball, and Sam goes flying. He bypasses the bleachers and lands in the parking lot. There's a loud crunch heard before the sound of several car alarms go off. Charlie glances at her hand and shakes it, she had certainly felt that.

Beiste blows her whistle, causing Charlie to turn to her. "Everyone moves onto the next stage. The flag dropped."

"What?" Charlie turns to look at the flag, which was now on the ground. She blinks, that counted as a loss. She had lost. Charlie suddenly floats up and heads to the table and looks at the files of each of the students that had been in the group. She had managed to capture three of them. "Sam Evans, age 14, level 3—chemical energy manipulation." Charlie reads out. "Level 3 my ass, he's at least a level 4 in terms of raw power." Charlie drops the file and reads Lauren's file next. "Lauren Zizes, age 17, level 3—momentum."

"I think they made the team," Beiste whispers to Charlie. If they were both good enough to give Charlie a bit of trouble, then they were certainly good enough to be on the team.

Charlie doesn't reply instead she takes off, taking to the sky where she spots Sam groaning on top of a car. The window had been smashed, and it was clear that the car was a write-off. She drops down landing on the hood of the car and leans over to study Sam. He seemed relatively unhurt, a few cuts and bruises but he looked fine. Charlie uses her abilities to pull him off the car, and does a quick check rotating him with her abilities.

"H-hey!" Sam says trying to get down, but giving up when he realizes that Charlie wasn't going to release him. Suddenly he stops moving and looks at Charlie who is studying him. "Did I make the team?" He asks hopefully.

"I've decided that you're going to be my sidekick." Charlie informs him, before dropping him rather unceremoniously back onto the car. When Sam groans in pain, Charlie pats him on the head. "You should see the nurse and then find me. We'll discuss your duties as my new sidekick after school."

Sam doesn't know what to say, he's pretty sure he's got a concussion, because when he opens his eyes next time, Charlie's gone. And he's not sure if he imagined it or not.

~ O ~

Santana stared at Rachel. Out of all the people who could have been on her team, why the fuck did it have to be her? It was like her luck had evaporated. Maybe that was what Rachel's abilities were she just managed to suck the luck from everyone around her. "Look, I know some of you guys dislike me and would love nothing more than to see Charlie kick my ass for the umpteenth time, but only one team has managed to win and I can't imagine she's thrilled at that. But I have a plan to be the second and only team to beat her. And it's going to require us working together, and playing on Charlie's obvious weaknesses. Food."

Rachel blinked, and looked at the glass container that was filled with food, "I don't think waving a container filled with food, is going to distract Charlie from stopping all of us. I mean, you don't think she'd trade with us for the food do you?"

Santana stared at Rachel, before deciding to simply ignore Rachel and focus on the goal at hand, which was to work together to stop Charlie. "Charlie's favorite thing in the world is food. So we're going to use this dish as Charlie's kryptonite. Once her attention is split, we're going to make a break for the flag."

Rachel hesitated before nodding, "If we give it to Quinn, she might play along. At this moment we're the villains, there is nothing that says that we can't use Charlie's obvious weakness against her. I've sat through a few dinners with the Fabray's and it's like watching dogs fight over a scrap of food. Quinn is enough of a threat that Charlie's focus will be completely on her. It should be a stroll to the flag."

"See, even Yentl agrees that it's a good idea," Santana says. "Speaking of which, unless you've figured out how to make Charlie's abilities weaker, or just our powers stronger."

Rachel nodded, it made sense. Charlie was dangerous enough as it is, Charlie with even stronger abilities would be near impossible to beat. "I agree, but if it calls for it I have a few songs in my back pocket if we do—"

"We won't," Santana interrupts as the buzzer sounds and the group breaks away. Santana narrows her eyes at Rachel for a moment before letting out an annoyed huff, "Look, I'm sorry for treating you like shit in the past, but if you fuck this up for me I will hurt you."

Rachel swallows, and nods as Santana turns to leave. "Santana—I know you think that my abilities are useless in this, but part of what makes Charlie a level 5 is her control. She generally avoids me when I'm using my powers, she mentioned that electrical surges are generally a bad thing for her. If you don't mind risking it—" Rachel trails off when Santana continues to walk away.

"Unless you're sure that it'll disrupt Charlie's powers, then don't do it," Santana responds. The last thing they needed was Charlie getting used to Rachel's powers and using them to her already overwhelming advantage. When they hit the field, she raises the dish. "Hey, Greedy Smurfette, I have your—" Charlie suddenly appeared in front of her, causing her to stumble back. "Don't do that," Santana hisses at Charlie. She grips the container tighter when Charlie tries to snatch it from her. "If I give you this will you give me the flag?"

Charlie glanced at the flag and then at the food, before smiling at Santana and snatching the container of food away from her. "No, but I promise I won't accidentally send you into Figgin's car. Or crashing into the bleachers."

"Fair," Santana said as she watched as Rachel talked with Quinn, noting as Charlie put the container on the desk beside Beiste. When Rachel nods at her, she knows the plan is on. Before the whistle sounds she flames up, going as hot as she can. Except just like last time Charlie looks utterly unimpressed. She clenches her fist, by the end of this stupid tryout she was going to prove to Charlie she was wrong.

Beiste looks over at Charlie before bringing her whistle to her lips and blowing on it hard. She's almost blown back as Santana takes off, her flames expanding before exploding sending her into the air. She'd gotten a lot stronger since she'd been kicked off the team. She places a checkmark next to Santana's name. She hated to admit it but Lawrence was right, kicking her off the team had been good for her.

Rachel moved to Charlie's left, she knew that Santana had said no singing, but she knew she could do this. Charlie needed to remain in control of her abilities, "The things we used to do, we used to be—" A metal clamp suddenly appeared out of nowhere and wrapped around her face which sent her flying backwards. Rachel scratches at her face, as she realizes that Charlie literally is holding Santana's ankle, stopping her movement. Rachel's eyes widen, how strong was Charlie that stopping Santana from moving looked relatively easy. It hadn't even been a minute. From what she'd heard everyone had been able to at least make an attempt and showcase their powers before Charlie made her presence known. The food plan had been a bust.

Santana scowls as she looks back at her foot, and tries to kick Charlie down. Since when was she this strong? Santana slams her free foot into Charlie's arm, finally landing a solid hit, that causes Charlie to drop her foot. She immediately turns her attention to the flag once more and makes another attempt. Only for Charlie to appear in front of her. "Shit!" Santana says flying backwards. She lets out a breath as she lands on her feet and looks over for her teammates. Of course they had been captured, but Charlie's thin metal bands wouldn't work on her. Which meant that Charlie was just attempting to run out the clock. Santana spots Rachel with a metal band wrapped around her mouth and quickly comes up with another plan.

She looks at Charlie who is watching her carefully and quickly makes a beeline to Rachel, cutting her free with a swipe of her hand. "Change of plans, you're going to sing your fucking heart out. Let Charlie get more powerful, I'll match her. You go for the flag."

"Are you—"

"Rachel," Santana snaps as she turns to look at Charlie. She takes a deep breath, filling her lungs with oxygen and closes her eyes as she ignites her body again. She needed to remain calm, sure there was a ticking clock and sure she needed to depend on Rachel, but Charlie would capitalize on any of her mistakes. She needed to focus, and let her flames build.

Charlie blinks as Santana's flames start to flicker blue, it's not the near clear blue that she had managed to get out of Santana, but her flames were blue and suddenly she's moving. Faster than she had been moving before. But she wasn't anywhere near fast enough.

"Do you think about me when the crowd is gone?

It used to be so easy, you and me—"

Even with all of Charlie's attention on Santana, she still has the wherewithal to pinpoint where Rachel is singing from, and shoots off another metal band that cuts Rachel off, it's far too much force in her attempt and she was aware it would leave a nasty bruise, but as Santana collides with her. She really can't find it in her to care.

Santana's body collides with hers and she's forced to take a few steps back stopping Santana from moving forward. Charlie smiles at Santana's determination as she gets even hotter, Shannon had given her strict instructions on what she couldn't do, and stunning Santana was out. So she changes tactics, instead focusing her magnetic field around Santana creating a forcefield around her and bringing her to the ground, just as the buzzer sounds.

Santana's body slumps against the ground and she slams her fists down, "Fuck." There was no way she was going to make the team. Charlie—

"Santana Lopez. Rachel Berry." Charlie states looking up at Beiste, releasing everyone from their bonds.

Santana looks up at Charlie in shock, she hadn't thought that Charlie would say her name. She turns to look at Beiste hoping that she would allow it as well.

Beiste studied her, "If you manage to make the team Lopez, if I hear any complaints from anyone you're off the team. Understand?"

"Yeah—yes Beiste."

"Congratulations both you and Rachel have made it to the next round. I look forward to actually seeing Rachel's ability in action."

Charlie moved over to Rachel and winces at the bruise that was forming around her jaw and lips, "Sorry, Rachel. You nearly had me."

"Really?" Rachel asks.

"If you hadn't been singing I probably wouldn't have been able to locate you so fast. All of my energy was going into stopping Santana. If it had been a few more seconds, and I'm sure the flag would have dropped."

Rachel beamed at Charlie's rare compliment, and winces. "I should go and see the nurse."

Charlie nods and looks over at her twin who was currently eating the food that Santana had prepared for her, and flips her off as she makes her way back to Santana, and helps her to her feet. "Lesson 2 is about control of your new blue flames."

Santana blinked, her body hurt. Everything hurt but Charlie had acknowledged her. "Alright tonight—"

"Can't—mom's making pork chops. And I've still got to help out here. Take the time until my schedule clears up to make going into that state without having someone beat your ass to get you there. And make me more of that food, Quinn's eating it all. So it doesn't count." Charlie points to the half eaten container.

Santana glances over at Quinn, "That was only half of what I made last night. Swing by my place after school, give me my first lesson, and then I'll pack you a doggy bag."

Charlie hesitates for a moment before she nods and her phone flies into her hand, "Put your contact information in. I needed to get ready for the next group, just give the phone to Quinn once you're done." Charlie said as she went to talk to Beiste about the next group.

Santana heads to Charlie's contacts and pushes the little plus sign and begins to type in her contact info when Charlie's phone buzzes and a text comes in, she flicks her eyes over the message and rolls her eyes at how explicit the text was. She eyes Charlie for a moment and then the text before, deleting it, and finishing entering her contact info. She sends a text to herself before heading into Charlie's messages and blocking the contact that was clearly sending her explicit messages. She quickly removes any trace of her meddling and hands the phone over to Quinn.