Judy yawned as she made her way to the kitchen, she had forgotten how much work babies were. But she was finally back home, and back to her routine. She pauses and tilts her head when she reaches the bottom of the stairs, the light to the kitchen was on, and she could hear Arte and Wolfgang happily eating their food. She frowned, and immediately headed into the kitchen and dining area. She's not surprised to see Charlie sitting there with a bowl of cereal as she worked on her laptop, a large pair of headphones on her head to block out any noise. She immediately approaches, only to stop when Charlie looks up at her immediately and pulls off her headphones. "You're using your abilities."

"You said I couldn't train, you never said that I can't use my abilities," Charlie responded before turning her attention back to her laptop. Hoping that it put an end to the conversation.

Judy took a breath, and headed to the table so she could take a look at what Charlie was working on. When Charlie makes no attempt to stop her, she takes a quick peek and blinks at the textbook that's on the screen and the pages of what appears to be math that is far too complex for her to understand. "What are you doing?"

"Homework," Came the rather curt response from Charlie. She didn't bother to add that it was Brittany's homework that she didn't want to do it.

"Do you need any help—"

"No," Charlie interrupted.

Judy winced at the harsh rebuttal, and pulled back fidgeting with her fingers. She straightens herself up and immediately heads to her safe space, which is the kitchen. "Do you want me to make you some breakfast? There's enough time for me to make you some bacon wrapped cherries?"

Charlie stopped typing and looked up at her mother, "You can make some for Quinn, I've got to head out, I have morning practice today," Charlie replies after looking at the time on her laptop. She closes it and puts it in her bag, before grabbing her gym bag that was laying on the ground beside her, checking to see if she had forgotten anything. "I won't be home till late tonight, so you don't have to worry about saving a plate for me. I'll pick up some food on the way back."

The cheerful smile on Judy's face freezes, and she swallows Charlie had never once said no to a cooked meal, even if she wasn't hungry which was a rarity, she still saved it for later. "Charlie—I understand you're upset, but I'm doing this for your own good."

Charlie stopped packing, she didn't have the time to get into with her mother this morning, "This isn't for my own good, this is about you not wanting me to be a hero. This is about your feelings. Dad doesn't like all the training I do either, but he doesn't try and force me to stop. He just gets super annoying as he tries to distract me from my training. I find him irritating, but he tries to bond with me and I appreciate that. All you do is lecture me, and make me do chores. You're not even trying to understand me. I get that you miss having Frannie and Brittany around, but you have Quinn. Quinn has a whole host of problems that you can fix. Trust me when I say Quinn really needs parenting."

"What do I need?" Quinn questioned as she entered the kitchen with a yawn.

"Parenting," Charlie responds before her mother can chime in.

Quinn immediately narrowed her eyes at Charlie, her twin had a notoriously bad happen of throwing her under the bus when she didn't want to get in trouble. "What did you tell her?"

Charlie rolled her eyes and zipped up her gym bag, "Nothing. I'm just informing our mother that between the two of us, she should probably focus on you more. Underage drinking, acting like—"

"Finish that sentence and I will turn you into a popsicle," Quinn hissed, suddenly very aware of where Charlie was going with this.

Charlie rolled her eyes, "Parent her, I'm fine."

"Charlie, you nearly died, I won't lie to you that I—" Judy sighed as Charlie walked off, and closed her eyes. "What are you doing after school that's so important that you can't have dinner with the family?"

"I'm off to explore my sexuality with a boy. That's what normal teenagers do right?" Charlie responds without glancing back, before her mother can say anything else she exits the house and heads down to her truck.

Judy immediately turns to look at Quinn who immediately shrugs. "She's been spending time with Blaine and Santana, this might be a sex thing, but I'm pretty sure that Blaine's dating Kurt. I have no idea what she's doing with him and Santana. Probably training, but without grandma increasing the gravity it's probably just working out, and a bit of light sparring on top of training."

Judy turned to look at the front door where Charlie had exited, this was first. Charlie had never so blatantly disobeyed her, and sending Charlie to bed without dinner, didn't mean that she was starving her daughter, she just didn't let Charlie eat the enormous amounts of food that she normally ate. But the rudeness, and the disrespect was a bit much. "What am I going to do with her?"

Quinn shrugged her shoulders once again, "Send her to go live with dad? Or worse, send her to live with Grandpa Greg, and Grandma Rose. They live on like a commune or whatever hippy nonsense, I mean a weekend. Of course if you do that she'll probably come back with a bit more ink."

Judy made a face, she'd deal with Charlie later, she needed to check in with Quinn. "What didn't you want Charlie telling me?"

Quinn froze immediately and looked at her mother, "You don't need to worry about it. Brittany gave me some helpful advice, and Charlie won't shut up about it. Marley might be getting an internship at Luthorcorp, and I really want to be supportive." It was a lie, but the last person she wanted to tell about what happened with Rachel was her mom.

Judy's eyes widened, "That's an amazing opportunity for Marley. You should invite her and her mother over to celebrate."

"Maybe, she's been so busy lately. The support team is making upgrades as quickly as they can before nationals, which means there's a lot of testing that needs to be done, and Marley still works, I was thinking though—if she does get the internship—maybe we could go to LA for the summer and—"

"No." Judy said immediately. "Do you want me to make you breakfast before you go pick Marley up?"

Quinn blinked, "Why?"

"You're seventeen, and while I'm aware that you and your sister have sex, that doesn't mean that I have to make it easy for you." Judy responded. "And if I allow it with you, Charlie will turn her bedroom into a revolving door of women. I do not want to make breakfast for strangers."

Quinn frowned, "I'm not Charlie."

Judy turned to look at Quinn, pausing slightly. "I know that."

"Do you?"

Judy tilted her head as Quinn grabbed her bag off the table and also immediately headed towards the door. She flinches at the door slamming closed, just as her father heads into the kitchen and immediately heads to the coffee machine. "I was never that moody at their age was I?"

Lawrence glances at his eldest daughter and immediately snorts. "Of course not dear." When Judy smiles he brings the mug to his lips. "You and Cassandra were worse."

Judy glared at her father, "You're a grandparent, you are never the bad guy."

"Is that what you're going to say to Frannie when she comes to you complaining about Mikey?" Lawrence laughs as Judy makes a face at him.

~ O ~

"What do you mean we're not going to Fort Salem for a training camp? My fathers already signed the permission slip! Did General Alder rescind her offer?" Rachel questioned.

Beiste turned to look at Artemis, and narrowed her eyes. She was the one who was supposed to break the news to the team. "No—"

"The air force under General Alder's command has a whole squad of women who specialize in sonic abilities, a training camp with them without having to sign up for the military will be invaluable to me, and a full training camp would be invaluable to the team as a whole!" Rachel interrupts.

"A training camp with the recruits at Fort Salem, might seem like it'll be incredibly useful, however it coincides with the training camp with Summit's first year class, and the rescheduled date coincides with the training camp you have with USC's hero course," Artemis spoke up, causing excited whispers from the Titan's. She glances over at Beiste who frowns at just how easily she had managed to distract them.

Santana perked up immediately, "We're going to have a training camp with Summit's first years?" She immediately smacked Charlie on the arm. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Charlie glanced at her grandmother before shrugging, "First time I'm hearing about this."

Rachel immediately held her hand up and waved it till Artemis shifted her gaze towards her, "While Summit also has world-class facilities, Fort Salem has a division for people with sonic based abilities. With my mother no longer giving me lessons, I need another way to get stronger. Is there a way to contact General Alder to see if it is possible for me to join in with the recruits?"

Artemis blinked, she was certain the distraction would have worked but Rachel seemed dead set on doing a training camp with General Alder. It seemed the little canary was more stubborn that she realized.

"The only thing you'll probably be is lunch," Charlie blurted aloud, tired of this conversation.

Artemis's eyes widened ever so slightly, "Firefly," she cautioned.

"No one is going to say anything, Grandma," Charlie retorts, "We can't expect them to do what we want, when they don't have the full picture. Rachel wants to get stronger, and training at Fort Salem might actually help her do that if she can avoid Alder's attention."

"It's classified information," Artemis points out.

"Rachel's my friend, and the last thing I want to see is her becoming one of the old crones that Alder keeps around her," Charlie responds before turning to look at Rachel. "The reason my family avoids Alder like the plague isn't just because she's a manipulative bitch who sucks the joy from everything and everyone. She is literally a vampire, not like Count Dracula or anything, but her ability is a form of mimicry empowerment, she sucks the life and abilities out of people. She's not a true Level 5, but she is dangerous enough that even I want to avoid her."

"If you are going to lie to me, Charlie," Rachel huffed, "At least make it a reasonable lie."

"She's not lying," Artemis answers for Charlie turning to look over at Beiste. "Alder has a very dangerous ability, the good news is that she can only copy one ability at a time, and she seems quite content with her wind abilities. But I must keep my family safe, I have no problem with working with the government, but Alder is not someone that you should trust. The reason that no one knows about this, is because the United States Government has a vested interest in keeping it classified."

"How do you think she's stayed alive since the Salem Witch Trials?" Charlie questioned. "Or haven't you questioned why she's generally always surrounded by a bunch of little old ladies? Rachel, I'm too lazy to lie to you, and given how powerful my family is, there are things that we know, many of which are classified. I can't tell you everything, I will never tell you everything I know, but if you're asking my advice on something I will always try and give you the best advice possible. I agree with you that Fort Salem is your best bet in getting stronger."

Rachel stomped her foot in protest, "Then why are we being punished for something that doesn't directly affect us?"

"Punished? A training camp at Summit is a punishment?" Santana questions immediately.

"Charlie is the only person that they're interested in—"

"I've already been accepted, Rachel," Charlie reminds Rachel.

"One senior, two juniors and one freshman." Artemis spoke up. "That's how many people from McKinley they're interested in. Charlie's not a part of that calculation."

"And so what? The rest of us who have worked so hard to even be on this team get disregarded because you said we can't?" Rachel would not go down without a fight.

Artemis sighed, "Your goal Rachel was to go to Summit, and I'm giving you all an opportunity to impress. Working hard doesn't mean you get what you want in life. It takes skill, it takes perseverance and most importantly it takes luck. There are hundreds of thousands of excellent actors out there, not everyone gets to make millions of dollars on a film. Life is unfair Rachel. I know coming from someone like me or even Charlie that seems like we're looking down on you, but it really is just a matter of fact."

"I was promised the best," Rachel reasoned weakly, "I was supposed to have a chance."

"This is a chance Rachel," Finn says speaking up. "You get to impress the people at Summit with your abilities. We all do, this is a chance for the entire team."

"Fort Salem hosts a training camp in the summer," Coach Beiste spoke up. "It's a month long, but it might be something you and your parents can look into Rachel. I know it will be after nationals, but you're still just a sophomore, you have time. But we really need to start training, next week we're going to start watching tape during lunch. You need to know who the players are, and we need to start coming up with ways to stop them."

~ O ~

"What are you doing here?" Quinn hissed at her father.

"Can't a father see his favorite child once in a while?" Russell tried to calm his seething daughter.

Quinn rolled her eyes, "Is this one of your shitty plans to convince mom that you aren't utter garbage?"

"No," Russel said firmly, frowning at Quinn's tone. He had taken a lot since he wasn't the greatest husband, but he knew that Quinn was being disrespectful. "Your mother called me, she said that we needed to have some one-on-one time. I know we haven't been close since your mother and I split, and I'll work on making myself a bit more available once Frannie's at a 100%, but I am here because you're my daughter and I love you Quinn. Your mother thinks this might be about the divorce finalizing—"

Quinn rolled her eyes, "Seriously you think this is about the divorce? Look you want to make yourself useful, fix Charlie and mom's relationship because that needs fixing. I don't want to have anything to do with you. You ruin everything you touch and I'm not going to let you ruin me too."

"Lucy—If you would just—"

Quinn takes a step back narrowing her eyes, "Quinn. You don't get to call me Lucy anymore, Russell." Her words feel like venom and she can see the hurt flash across Russell's face. "I don't want to be like you Russ. I don't want to hurt the people that I say I love, just because I need to have some instant gratification."

Russell tilted his head, trying to pick up on the most important part of what Quinn had just said. "Cheating isn't genetic. All because I cheat doesn't mean you should cheat. You know that I'm a shitty husband Lucy, but I do love your mom. She makes me happy. She gave me four beautiful daughters—see how selfish I sound, like everything is about me."

"Well at least you can hear it," Quinn muttered and looked away. "Look I have homework to do and—"

"Lucy," Russell stated firmly, "Your mother is worried about you, that's why she asked me to come here and talk to you. I'm worried about you as well, maybe I left this too long and should have had this conversation with you earlier, but I was trying to respect your space. But it's been over a year since your mom and I separated and you're still filled with anger. I know it's because out of all my kids you're the only one that's disappointed in me."

"That's not true, Brittany's disappointed."

Russell snorted, "Brittany talks to me twice a week, I mean it's usually to ask for more money, but we talk. I stopped by last week to see how she was doing after the horror show that was Frannie's birth, and I took her and Mike out for dinner. He seems nice, respectful. I like him. We talked about it, she thinks I should go to therapy for sex addiction."

"Well Frannie—"

"Doesn't care as long as I don't spend her inheritance on whomever I sleep with," Russell interrupts smirking at Quinn who scowled at him. Frannie had said it to his face, he had always liked that about his eldest.

"Charlie cares."

Russell snorted at this, he knew for a fact that Charlie didn't care. "Charlie and I text a couple times a week. She's helping me lose weight, in the most sadistic way possible, but she sends me exercises to do, and an obscene amount of reps to do. I think she forgets that I'm an old man. No, she calls me that all the time in her attempt to motivate me. Your sister is absolutely terrible at motivating people. She is mad at me because I didn't defend her to your mother. Lucy, I know you're upset with me, and you have every right to be, but I'm still your dad and I can still give you advice."

"On how not to be you?" Quinn sneers.

Russell tilts his head for a moment as he tries to piece together what Quinn was getting at— "Did you cheat on your girlfriend Quinn?"

"I—what? Pfft, no! I'm not a relationship-ruining cheater like you! I don't have to live with the fact that I ruined an entire relationship over some stupid mistake that—"

"You cheated," Russell stated blankly, "You cheated and it's eating you up inside because you don't want to be anything like you dear old dad. I know how that feels, Lu—Quinn. It's a nasty thing, cheating. You crave the rush but hate it when you sober up."

Quinn closed her eyes, "Don't tell mom," she said, her shoulders slumping. She couldn't bear to have her mom look at her in that way.

"I won't," Russell promises.

~ O ~

"Is that it?" Charlie asked, nudging Blaine with her left foot. His hair was a frizzy mess as he gasped for air. "You're really out of shape, Blaine." Charlie turns to look over at Santana, she still looked exhausted but at least she wasn't trying to suck up all the air in the world. "You too Santana, haven't you been doing the exercise plan that I gave you?"

"I've been too busy cleaning up your messes with the team to exercise," Santana snarked, exhausted.

Charlie wrinkled her nose, "What mess? I'm a fantastic captain!"

"You literally have been treating them like trash since your grandma canceled our trip to Fort Salem," Santana breathed.

"Me? I haven't done anything, did you miss my whole speech about how Alder is a psychotic vampiric bitch?" Charlie questioned glancing over at Blaine who was wheezing. She sighs and bends over to check up on him. "Nationals are right around the corner and the team needs to be ready. That means I have to be harsher, it's not that I want to. But I do actually want all of you to succeed."

"Charlie, have you even asked if anyone was okay," Santana sighed, disappointed, "Not everyone can just let shit roll off their shoulders you can. Some of us were really excited to be seen, for once."

"My grandmother didn't take that away from any of you, Summit is right there and I think you, Blaine, Matt and Artie are on their shortlist, this is an opportunity that most other schools don't get. My family is literally opening up doors for the school, and my grandmother is paying for a brand new facility. I mean yes the government has a vested interest in making me happy and they will pay for a large chunk of it to get me ready, but there are opportunities. General Alder comes with too much baggage, and I really don't want to see any one of you become her pet assassin or whatever nonsense she comes up with. She's dangerous. I'm saying this Santana, I'm saying that she's dangerous and I'm trying to keep you safe."

"Try telling that to stubborn sweaty teenage angst, it never listens," Santana finally caught her breath.

Blaine finally managed to sit up and exhaled, "You think I'm on the list to get into Summit?"

"It's a guess," Charlie admitted. "There are four juniors, including myself. So really it's between you, Finn and Santana. Finn hasn't done anything to really impress, so my best guess is that it's you and Santana. Artie is the only freshman who has the best control over his abilities, and quite frankly Matt's ability has grabbed some interest especially after what happened in sectionals. Not that any of that matters, now is not the time to rest on our laurels. So let's go again."

"No," Santana says, raising a brow and looking at Charlie.

"No?"

"No, I'm done for the day, " Santana said shortly.

Charlie blinked, "You're done after a warm up?"

"What do you mean warm up?" Blaine asked, horrified as he looked at Charlie.

"This was the warm up! How can you guys be this tired?" Charlie asked, baffled, it had just been a ten mile run. Sure she had increased their resistance a smidge, but really this wasn't anything. It wasn't as if she was demanding they run a marathon.

"Charlie, you can't honestly think that we can keep up with you," Santana wiped the sweat from her brow.

"Over training isn't good for the body," Blaine adds looking up at Charlie.

"I'm not expecting you to keep up with me but all we did was cardio! It's important but we need to do some strength training, get the muscles in the body to be the perfect blend of fast and slow twitch fibers—" Charlie frowned when Santana gave her a look. "Alright we can take turns sparring! That's at least fun right?"

Blaine shot a look at Santana who groaned, she had no idea why everyone expected her to manage Charlie. "Getting my ass kicked by you isn't fun Charlie. It's painful, and sure you don't actually cause any actual damage, but trust me when I say it isn't fun."

"I agree, and we already did that in training," Blaine said as he slowly got up.

"I thought you guys agreed to help me train! How is this helping me?"

Santana waited until Charlie extended her hand and pulled her up before she dusted herself off, "Charlie. No one in the world trains like you do. Not even Charlotte Flair, she doesn't have time. You won't have time when you're a hero. That being said, Blaine agreed to let you use his backyard and his home gym to help you train, as long as you trained us. Expecting the two of us to keep up—you know that's not going to happen. So stop being a selfish narcissistic prick and stop thinking about your fight with Flair. You're strong enough, you're fast enough, and you'll probably win."

"How are you not in pain?" Blaine groaned he was most definitely going to hurt tomorrow. He had always thought he was fit, but Charlie had pushed him beyond his limit.

"At this point I'm probably just doing it subconsciously," Charlie admits and places a hand on both Santana and Blaine's shoulders and focuses for a moment. It takes a second before both Santana and Blaine visibly relax. She glances at her watch and makes a face.

"You know," Blaine laughed after a moment, high off the buzz, "I don't understand you, Charlie, but I think I'd like to."

"Are you asking me out?," Charlie looked confused, "Santana is more my type than you are." Charlie flashes Santana the most charming smile she can muster and is rewarded by Santana rolling her eyes hard.

"No, I want you to teach me how to think like you. I want to understand your brain so I can be the best hero I can be," Blain admitted quietly.

"Seriously?" Santana hissed at him. Blaine seriously did not know what he was signing up for.

"Seriously," Blaine agreed, looking at Charlie.

"Alright," Charlie smiled and kicked Blaines ankle, sending him crashing to the ground with a thud, "First rule of being a hero, don't quit after cardio like a little bitch. Second rule: always keep your guard up!" Charlie adds as she zaps him hard.

Santana rolled her eyes yet again as Charlie continued to attack, she almost felt sorry for Blaine; she'd been on the receiving end of this treatment before, "Charlie, beating up Blaine while spouting off your rules of being a hero—not what he was talking about. Tactics, like how you knew to use me and Matt?"

Charlie stopped, "What happens when you light a candle and put a cup or whatever on top of it?"

"Flame goes out," Santana responded, "Oxygen is fuel so if it runs out—" Santana trailed off as it suddenly dawned on her. "Oh."

"Oh?" Blaine asked grimacing as he sat up and spat out some dirt that had gotten into his mouth.

"If you're fighting against another AI, ability matchups are important as well as where you actually are. You need to completely understand your ability on a fundamental level. Then you need to strengthen your ability so that your weaknesses aren't glaring. I can make things magnetic but against a rubber monster or something, my electricity powers are in theory useless. So instead of wasting energy trying to make my abilities work the way I want them too I—" Charlie trails off and looks at both Blaine and Santana, hoping that they can finish the sentence.

"You could use your abilities on what is surrounding the monster?" Blaine suggests. "Like throw a car at it, or something." When Charlie nods, he grins and looks at Santana.

"Use your magnetism, as you've said multiple times anything is magnetic if you're powerful enough," Santana adds.

Charlie nodded, both were options she'd definitely think of and then make a snap decision in the moment. "Throwing a car at the monster is a good idea, but that's property damage and should only be done if there I know the other option won't work. All because I'm a hero and I can destroy half a city block to kill a monster doesn't mean that I or even you should. I mean another idea would be to use electricity to melt rubber, again it depends on a multitude of factors."

Blaine nodded, that made sense. He pauses for a moment. "I do have some video. We could go over, we should start coming up with some ideas and possible ways to counter them."

Charlie paused, "I'm going to need a large bowl of popcorn, blue M&M's and lots of soda."

Blaine hesitated, he was sure they only had popcorn and it was probably the healthy kind, "How about I just order three extra-large pizzas, some wings and some garlic knots?"

Charlie nodded, if Blaine was paying then she didn't mind eating one extra large pizza for dinner, she'd need to be careful. She wasn't working out nearly as much, she couldn't eat like she normally ate. "Actually, I should really only have a medium pizza."

Santana blinks and glances at Blaine who looks just as shocked as she feels and she immediately reaches to touch Charlie's forehead, "Are you sick?" There was actual concern on Santana's face, Charlie ate a lot and she ate quickly and she had zero idea where Charlie put it all.

"No, you'll know when I'm sick I'm miserable and grumpy and need to be taken care of because I'm sick," Charlie grumbled smacking Santana's hand away. "I'm not working out, I can't eat like I normally do. I normally eat around ten thousand calories a day, usually more and I probably should eat more, but I barely did anything today. Don't want to put on any extra weight, remind me that I need to cut before Nationals, I need to be my best self. To the living room!"