"You had me worried. I know, it's silly to worry after all you're the Hero of New York! The savior! The chosen one!" Cassandra says, getting up from where she had simply been sitting, waiting on the porch for Charlie to return. "The golden child who was handed everything that should have been mine!"
Charlie doesn't respond to Cassandra's goading, she needed to make this as noisy as possible which meant that she needed to match Cassandra completely, before completely overwhelming her. This wasn't Charlotte Flair, and she had no reason to believe that Cassandra wouldn't take her head off if given an opening. Her grandfather—a lump forms in her throat, her grandfather had always said that she needed to stop thinking so much while fighting. Her grandfather had commented on the lag that it was causing, against slower opponents, this wasn't a problem and she would eventually and surely overpower them, but against the Charlottes, the Blaines, the Cassandra's she needed to rely simply on muscle memory. Trusting her instincts to get her through.
The amused smile that's painted on Cassandra's face doesn't reach her eyes, as her body explodes with power, a rather large energy field, the pressure destroying a large section of the porch, which creaks and groans under the pressure that Cassandra's exerting. Charlie was not the best at hand-to-hand, and amongst the family she ranked the lowest, and if she could keep herself within arm's reach Charlie would struggle. What she doesn't expect is for Charlie to simply take half a step back and slam her hand down with enough force that sends her careening into the ground face first, her body suddenly going limp as she lands face first directly in front of her niece.
"You've got tricks, if you think—" Cassandra looks up and her blood runs cold. In that brief second all Cassandra could see was her father's face looking back at her with that disappointed expression that she had grown accustomed to, and it paralyzes her as the guilt eats away at her and she raises her hand to start blasting away, to try and put some distance between them. "What are you?" Her voice barely above a whisper.
Charlie didn't say anything in response, instead she sends Cassandra flying into the air with a lightning bolt that appears to originate from below Cass's prone body. Charlie's head tilts upward as she follows her aunt's movement as she bounces on the balls of her feet before changing her stance and taking flight with enough force to break the ground beneath her feet, her skin starting to light up as the blood in her veins start to glow.
~ O ~
"Anything?" Rachel asks Mike, as she looked at her phone, there had been absolutely no news about what was going on in Lima as of yet.
"Nothing at all," Mike frowns and looks up from where they were seated. Quinn, Frannie and Russell had been on the phone since Charlie had left, there were varying levels of frustration on their faces. Brittany was currently looking after Mikey, while also trying to call people.
Rachel bit her lip with enough force to break skin, she winced and immediately released her lip. "I still can't believe it. Artemis and Lawrence were kind, loving and Judy—my fathers adored her. How do we help them?"
Mike looks over at the family for a brief moment, his eyes falling on Brittany who immediately seems to know that he's looking at her and turns and flashes him a sad smile. "You know when I first spent a few days in Lima, Lawrence talked to me, he said that loving the women in this family was difficult. Powerful, probably far smarter than most people, and that a relationship wouldn't work if I needed her in a traditional sense. I mean Brittany's probably a bit better than the rest of them, but I do get what he means. We need to be their rock and let them go through the grieving process, while supporting them every step of the way."
Rachel glances over at Quinn who doesn't seem to notice, and nods. "Whatever they need," Rachel vowed.
"Anything?" Russell questions his daughters as he ends his phone call angrily. Yesterday this wouldn't be an issue, but the fact that he was calling them desperate—while it was true he had quite a few people who were loyal to him, it was equally true that he had just as many enemies, and friends who would love to stick a knife in his back if they believed that it would get them ahead.
"Nothing," Frannie replied, frowning. Perhaps it would be best if she and Quinn paid them a visit. She was certain that Quinn could put the fear of god into them if she wanted to.
"Do you have any footage just yet?" Russell asked. The moment that there was something live, anywhere on the internet he would speed dial someone at one of the major news networks.
"Not yet, perhaps I should reach out to Jacob Ben Israel, and let him know or Santana—"
"No Santana," Quinn calls out, covering the microphone on her phone. "Charlie needs to remain in control, and Santana's a pressure point we shouldn't be introducing into an active situation, it will only cause her attention to split more than I'm sure it already has. Get JBI and his cameraman tell him there is 500 bucks in it for him if he gets it done. And let him know I will be paying him a bonus if the quality is excellent, not to mention whatever else the news media will pay him for the footage."
"On it!"
Quinn turns to her father, "We need to get eyes on Charlie, I don't think Cassandra is actually a problem for her to deal with, but if that psychotic bitch is as unhinged as I believe her to be, then she's going to try and start dragging civilians into this, as long as Santana doesn't get involved or hurt, Charlie won't take the world to the dark ages by frying every single piece of electrical equipment on the planet."
~ O ~
In her prime, Cassandra had never once lost a fight, she had been called to take on challenges that most others couldn't stand against, and she had won. It had been easier back then there hadn't been many official level 5's and she had enjoyed the high life. Things had been good back then but with Vought Industries exploding and creating artificial augmented individuals, with Homelander being their attempt at a level 5 her time in the sun had come to an end.
But then things changed, and for whatever reason she didn't quite understand why she had become public enemy number one. One bad day, and being hounded and harassed by paparazzi and she had been dragged to the pits of hell. She had been loved, they had loved her and just like her mother's affection there were conditions. "You know they'll turn on you too," Cassandra says, despite the fact that her jaw had been broken. Something had given way, after Charlie had punched her in the face, and it hadn't been Charlie's hand.
Charlie didn't dignify her aunt's ramblings with a response, as she sidesteps a rather slow and sloppy swing from her aunt. Quinn was right, Cassandra wanted her to end her pain. It would certainly be easy, as she shifts her weight at the last second barely avoiding another attack. This time as Cassandra pulls back to launch another attack she reaches out, and slams her open palm down hard on Cassandra's hip.
Arcs of electricity suddenly wrap around her body, as her muscles contract and spasm painfully leaving her breathless, and she stumbles backward, nearly falling on her ass, and for the first time taking a look at her surroundings. They had long left the Fabray compound and were slowly making their way into town, and she smirked as she spotted a residential area nearby. If Charlie wasn't going to play ball then she was simply going to have to force the issue. She takes to the sky quickly and raises her hand and begins to fire off blasts towards the first house that she spots.
Charlie eyes the barrage of blasts and raises her hand as a bolt of lightning arcs from the sky, Quinn had told her to make it noisy and she was certain that someone would notice and start recording. But even as the bolt splits into a hundred different branches obliterating most of the barrage, one manages to escape and before she can deal with the stray blast it connects with a car, putting a massive hole through the side and igniting the gasoline in the car, causing it to explode into a fiery mess.
An annoyed expression flashes across Charlie's face and it's all Cassandra needs to know, "Never let your enemy see what your weakness is. I mean it is kind of obvious isn't it? Everyone thinks that your weakness is that you're absolutely shit in hand to hand combat, but while that's true you know how to handle yourself in a fist fight. Your biggest weakness is that you care far too much for them. They will betray you, they will stab you in the back and that pretty little girlfriend of yours, you think she's going to stick by you through thick and thin? Do you honestly believe that she's going to be your ride and die?"
"Do you really think that attempting to kill a bunch of people I care about will go well for you?" Charlie asks, tilting her head slightly as she crosses her arms over her chest. She should have been more proactive instead of flashy when it came to saving people, crossing her arms over her chest as she glances at the damaged vehicle, it certainly looked familiar. "I know you want to throw the blame onto Grandma, Cassandra, but she's not the one that made you weak. At some point you stopped being the victim Cassandra and your choices led you here, because grandma was right about you. You are weak, and if you go after what I care about, you will not like the consequences."
Cassandra stared at her niece before raising her hand into the air as she began to fire off blasts in every direction, it would at least buy her time and Charlie would be forced to move to a more defensive position, and while she was distracted she could finally launch some successful attacks.
~ O ~
"We've got a live feed! It's being streamed to a bunch of different platforms. Youtube. Twitch. Basically he's streaming to whatever he can find!" Rachel calls out.
Almost immediately both Quinn and Frannie were at her side, trying to get a better look at the phone in her hands. "We're going to need a bigger screen. Can you stream it to the TV?"
"Hold on," Rachel says as she begins to fiddle with her phone as Mike gets up to turn on the television. It takes a moment for her phone to connect but suddenly the screen comes to life and the picture isn't the best quality and it is rather shaky as the cameraman tries to catch all the action that is unfolding before him.
This time everyone crowds around the TV just as they hear Jacob screaming as a blast hurtles towards them. But just before the blast kills both of them Charlie literally appears and catches the massive blast in her hands and with very little fanfare flips it up the massive blast and raises a finger and sends a concentrated bolt of lightning through it breaking it apart into much smaller less lethal blasts.
"Are you trying to die?" Charlie questions as she crushes the smaller energy blasts with her hands.
"As Lima's only news reporter—" Jacob begins only to quiet under Charlie's intense glare at him. "Can I at least ask why you're fighting your aunt? This seems far more than just a simple sparring match—"
"Keep your distance," Charlie barks out, making sure that her voice has all the gravitas needed for Jacob to listen. "I'm trying to get her away from the general population now. And this is distracting. Any more information and you ask my sister or Rachel, understood?" When Jacob nods, Charlie lets out a bit of a breath and noting the plume of condensed water vapor, before taking off.
Russell frowned, at the exchange, he knew all his daughters could be prickly but if Charlie wanted to be a hero for the people, "She needs to smile."
"Dad! Now is not the time—"
"This isn't about sexism, if she was a man I'd tell her the same thing," Russell insists. "She needs people to be comforted by her presence, this is a public relations comment."
"There is no smiling, if she saw what I saw," Frannie says, her tone heavy as she looks at her sister. Charlie's movements were sharp, they were limited; she wasn't trying to see how far she could push herself, at least not yet. She was being careful, all while leading Cassandra away from the residential area. Everything that she had learned she was putting into practice in a real situation, and if their grandfather could see her—Frannie sniffs and schools her face. She needed to place that from her mind.
"The house is safe now right?" Brittany questions.
"Charlie's managed to clear a bit of distance—" Quinn begins.
"Good, then Frannie opens a portal. I need to see—"
"No." Frannie interjects, not letting Brittany finish that thought.
"I might be able to save them!" Brittany insists immediately.
"Your abilities don't work on non-living matter," Quinn reminds her sister gently.
"And my mother's gifts also have that limitation Britt, if they're gone then they're—they're gone," Russell's voice cracks. He didn't want to believe it.
"My ability and Grandma Rose's might be similar but they aren't the same dad. I work on a molecular level, grandma doesn't. Just give me a chance please!"
"You don't really have anything to lose, I can go with her," Mike offers.
"Don't you want mom back?" Brittany asks, looking at her father before looking at her two sisters. "Grandma? Grandpa? Let me at least try. I just want to try. Please."
"It's not safe—"
"Dad!"
Russell sighed and looked at Frannie, "Can you—"
Frannie nodded, and took a deep breath before opening the portal.
~ O ~
Cassandra gasped for air, her limbs had slowly begun to feel heavier as Charlie kept pushing her back, she had been relentlessly stopping every attack aimed at civilians. As her movements began to grow duller with each passing second, the pressure Charlie was exerting only seemed to be growing. And what was worse was the kid was effectively countering, seemingly knowing where all her weak points were. If she didn't know any better it felt like she was fighting her father. She lets out a laugh, "I killed you."
Charlie tilted her head at her aunt, raising a brow she was very much still alive. "Aunt Cass?"
"I fed your heart to those damn mutts!" Cassandra screams at her, a wild look in her eye.
Charlie's eyes narrowed immediately she could feel a sudden and sharp surge in power from her aunt and she knew that she needed to end this fight quickly and effectively, she hadn't really given a lot of thought into how she was going to end the fight, but Quinn had said to make sure that she let the world know that their family was not to be trifled with. "You killed the man who loved you, and was going to try and get you work. Who hoped that you would get better, and you killed him. He probably wasn't the greatest father, but he loved you. So did grandma. I thought I could save you, but you're nothing more than a rabid dog. And the only solution is to neutralize the threat." Charlie said raising her hand, her eyes were radiant as massive arcs of electricity cover her body.
Cassandra becomes lucid in that moment, and she lets out a laugh, and opens her arms out. "You don't have the guts to do what needs to be done. Come on, kill me. You get one shot!" Cassandra laughs loudly. She would finally be at peace. All the noise, all the pain it would finally stop.
Charlie raises two of her fingers like she had seen her grandmother do a million times and then flicks them downward, increasing the gravitational field around her aunt and sending her plummeting towards the earth, despite her struggles to stay afloat. Charlie watches with semi-detached interest, it would be easy to simply give her aunt what she wanted. But she had promised her mother that she would be kind and just, and she knew that her mother would insist that she leave Cassandra alive. But there wasn't a prison on the planet that could hold a level 5 threat, at least none that she knew of and her family was different from most other level 5s. But there were plenty of prisons. And it was clear that her aunt was clearly in some sort of mental distress. "Be kind and just," Charlie repeats mostly to herself as she slowly descends. There were plenty of prisons, and Cassandra needed to pay for her crimes. She had surprised herself when she had faced Charlotte and she had actually managed to stop part of her abilities—she just needed to make it permanent with her aunt.
"Since when could you—" Cassandra gasped for air, her eyes wide and panicked. She had killed her mother, she had killed the bitch. "She made you into a monster! You think they'll ever accept you?"
"They really won't have a choice," Charlie responds, keeping her aunt pinned under an immense gravitational field. Touching down in front of her aunt. "I'm not going to kill you Aunt Cass. I'm not going to give you what you want after you took everything from me. I loved them, just like I still love you and I want you to get better. But I need to give up the dream that I had that we'd be partners, that you and I would be the most kickass team. Because we would have been, we would have been so kickass. A family business of saving people and I wouldn't have to hold up the world up by myself. All you needed to do was wait. I was rushing to be a hero so I could use the power that I had to get you back to where you once were." Her aunt had splintered and crumbled under the weight of the world and she would not let that be her. She needed to make them afraid. And the only thing that powerful people feared more than anything was becoming powerless.
"Do you think there's a prison that can hold me?" Cassandra manages to get out through gritted teeth. The pain was unbearable. And if she could lift her arms she would be firing away.
Charlie doesn't respond immediately; she just watches her aunt for a moment before raising her hands and forming a ball of energy in her hand. She studies the ball for a moment before looking at her aunt and crushing the energy ball in her hand. "I admired you, I loved you. You showed me how to be brave, you saved my life and I will forever be grateful that you were there the day that I started this. I don't think there will ever be a hero that I admire as much as I admired you. But you betrayed me, you betrayed this family and you broke my heart. I can't take your pain away, Aunt Cass, I wish I could. I wish I could heal you, but I can't. Just like I couldn't save you, just like I couldn't save them. " Charlie said. Cassandra would always be her greatest shame. "I can make sure that you never hurt anyone again, that you aren't a threat."
"The only way for you to do that is—"
Charlie raised her hand and focused on what she wanted, the arcs of lightning concentrating to the palm of her right hand and she brought her hand down hard slamming it into her aunt's chest with force and with all of her power.
Cassandra's pupils go wide, and she gasps even as Charlie releases the gravitational field, and she reaches for Charlie's hand which is still on her chest. But her strength immediately fails her but she doesn't think anything of it, Charlie was in striking distance and an energy blade through the heart would end this. She hops to her feet before Charlie can react and slams her fist against Charlie's heart. But she doesn't feel the thrum of her abilities and as she pulls her fist away she doesn't see a gaping wound in Charlie's chest. "What did you do?" The panic sets in as Charlie takes a step back from her.
Charlie opens her mouth to say something before she catches the sound of police sirens, and she turns her back to Cassandra and focuses on JBI and his cameraman. JBI had dropped his microphone and was staring at her with his mouth open. She walks up to him and picks up the microphone, "Cassandra July, murdered my mother, my grandmother and my grandfather. She was my aunt and I admired her and I loved her deeply. She gave everything to save you, blood, sweat and tears and yes she had her demons but she was working on them. And instead of supporting her, instead of working with her and giving her hope something to work towards. Cassandra is family, and I stripped her of her abilities, she's a nil now. Apparently I can do that, but for all of you who think that our family is weak without our matriarch, I took her power away and I haven't even broken a sweat. As much as I hate her, she is my mother's sister and my grandparents' child. I showed mercy, but if you think that's a weakness, remember she is family you are not, and if you come for my family—do you really want to see what I'll do to you?" Charlie stares directly into the camera as she says this before turning around and tossing the microphone over her shoulder at JBI.
Her eyes scanned her aunt for a moment to make sure that she wasn't a threat any further, but she didn't feel anything at all. Cassandra seemed hellbent on trying to bring forth her powers but nothing was happening. She had successfully depowered her aunt, and while she should feel triumphant or some sort of relief, but she truly didn't feel anything at all she just felt numb.
~ O ~
"Did you know that she could do that?" Russell whispered, turning to look at Quinn. He knew that they had told her to make them afraid, but even for a man like him, he rarely used his own abilities to begin with, the thought of someone taking it from him scared him on a complete fundamental level, and he thanked the stars that Charlie was on the family's side.
"Did I know that Charlie could take away someone's ability?" Quinn repeats, still stunned by the implications alone. There was no way that there wouldn't be senate hearings, and Charlie wouldn't be forced to be tested. They were going to have to hire a public relations firm immediately, and more importantly Charlie needed to have a very powerful law firm in her back pocket. "It makes sense, if Brittany—suppressed Mikey's abilities, then it makes sense that she could in theory take away powers. Grandma managed to suppress Charlie's abilities with gravity alone."
Russell sighed, there would be no protecting his daughter after this, he was going to have to insist that Charlie attend Summit. She had announced herself to the world, and with Cassandra's mental health issues, and the fact that Cassandra murdered at least three people, and he suspected that she was behind the fires in New York which had killed at least twelve people, and there were multiple injuries, many of them were in critical condition. He opens his phone up and begins to look through his contacts before finding a name and dialing it. He waits for a moment before someone picks up. "Jeri, it's Russell." He waits for a moment for her greeting. "Were you watching? Good. We're going to need your best people on this. I want you on this, and whoever else you think it's best." He listens for a moment, before nodding despite the fact that she couldn't see him. "We'll be in Lima. I'll send you the address."
Quinn turns to Rachel who had been watching just as intently as she had been, and instead of seeing fear or distrust, she just sees Rachel's grief. "It's—" Before she can even finish her sentence Rachel's arms are around her tightly hugging her tightly. "It's over," the danger had passed even if she was certain that their family would be feeling the consequences of Cassandra's actions for years.
~ O ~
"Britt," Frannie said gently, placing her hand on her sister's shoulder. She had just "It's over."
"I can do this," Brittany snaps at Frannie jerking her shoulder free, she had poured as much energy into it as she could and she had managed to fix her mother's face, by all accounts that shouldn't have been possible, but no matter what she tried she couldn't seem to replicate the spark of life, she didn't actually understand what life was. "I just need more time Frannie."
Frannie looks over at Mike and gives him a look, "Brittany it's time. You tried and you did your best—"
"And it's not good enough. What good are my abilities if I can't—if I can't help the people that I love. That I can't bring them back." Brittany takes a deep breath and she tries to breathe life into her mother. But nothing happens, her mother's eyes don't open, she doesn't sit up and hug her, it looks like she's sleeping and she knows that she'll never wake up. "Please mom, please," Brittany begs.
Mike steps forward and pulls Brittany back, wrapping his arms around her tightly and holding her as she breaks down sobbing. He doesn't say anything he's never been much for talking to begin with, and he doesn't even know what to say, all he can do is hold her as she sobs.
Frannie looks at the ceiling and wipes her face quickly, she hadn't wanted to get her hopes up but Brittany had fixed her mother's face, and for a brief moment, she had thought that it would be possible she had allowed her hope to grow with each passing second but nothing. Brittany's abilities had limitations she knew that and while her sister was capable of many things, death seemed to be something that their family couldn't overcome. She would need to work harder if she wanted to protect her son, if she wanted to protect her sisters. And they needed to make sure that this never happened again.