Blaine wasn't a naturally suspicious person but he couldn't help the growing suspicion that Charlie and Santana were back together again as they whispered amongst themselves while looking at a tablet and sharing what appeared to be sushi. "Hey," he greeted and immediately took a step back when they both looked at him, before going back to the tablet. He blinks and puts his lunchbox on the table and opens it, pulling out the leftovers from the party. "Are you two together again?"

"No," Santana and Charlie say together.

"Frannie's not wrong, about what happened at sectionals. Bone meeting bone is generally a terrible idea most times, something is going to give out. So you need to aim for the meaty areas. You also need to work on your stamina Santana. At no point should your powers fail you, if that happens then you're as good as dead."

"You make it sound so easy, but you fought for hours, and you looked like you could keep going."

"Don't compare yourself to me Santana, it gets easier. But what you really need to focus on is frequency plus duration, the more you use your abilities at that level the easier it becomes to manipulate them, and the longer you can last. You also need to have a recovery plan, Nationals is going to be a several day event. Your body is your temple, if you guys had just listened to me when we were working out together last year your stamina would be much better."

Santana rolled her eyes, "You really need to let us ease into your insane workouts Charlie, you can't expect us to just be able to keep up."

"I wasn't expecting you to match my stride, but you need to learn to push through it when you're tired and when you're in pain. I know you think it's not healthy and you're right it's not but a villain isn't going to stop if you have a cramp or you're bleeding out. Being a hero is incredibly damaging to the body, so you need to make sure your body is in peak condition all the time, which is like a full time job all on its own." Charlie says as she pops a spicy tuna roll into her mouth and chews.

"You've just been talking shop?" Blaine questions.

"You heard Frannie and what to expect at Nationals, damn right I'm talking shop," Santana grunted. She needed to absorb as much information and skill as possible. "Can we watch some of the footage from your fight with Wraith? Can you walk through your thought process?"

Charlie grunts, "Pick something else, I really don't want to think about what happened in Chicago, maybe one day but it's too soon."

"Too soon for what?" Kurt questioned as he sat by Blaine, he pauses for a moment and looks at Santana and Charlie. "Are you two sleeping together again?"

"No," Santana said with a dismissive roll of her eyes.

"Don't you think it's weird that everyone is far more into our sex lives than we are?" Charlie questions Santana a frown on her face

"I know, perverts every last one of them." Santana scoffs.

Kurt turns to look at Blaine, "Are they dating again?"

"They said no."

"Do we believe them?"

"Not sure yet," Blaine responds, staring at them before shrugging, as more and more Titans start to join the table.

"Well, you know what you need Charlie if we're going over your latest hits. A supersuit."

"No," Charlie said, turning Kurt down immediately.

"Oh come on," Kurt grumbled, Charlie was the hottest hero and she didn't have a super suit. "I could whip you up one now, and with the rest of the support team, it could be amazing."

"My grandfather said my supersuit would arrive when I turned 18. I think he had a hand in designing it, he said it was a surprise."

Santana made a face, Charlie was turning 18 sooner rather than later and that meant she would be leaving McKinley, to head over to Summit. She bites into her California roll, and points to the tablet with her chopsticks, "Alright what about that monster that ate you."

"I wasn't eaten, do you have any idea how strong stomach acid is? I'd die!" Charlie insists.

Before Santana could make a comment, Rachel places her lunch tray down with a bit of force causing the table to turn to look at her. "Shouldn't you be with Quinn?"

"Quinn has a meeting with Sue and Frannie is in attendance, I'm not quite sure what's going on but I'm pretty sure that the rule in place was that Frannie was never meant to meet Sue for the safety of the Cheerios, but since she's otherwise disposed, we can discuss your birthday party!"

Charlie blinked and she looked at Rachel, "It's not my birthday. My birthday comes every 4 years, and I only celebrate it every 4 years. And since Quinn's birthday is on the 28th, my birthday was on the 1st. So plan a party for Quinn, and leave me out of it."

"So I don't have to get you a present?" Santana questions, smirking when Charlie shoots her a look. "Well if you don't celebrate it and it's not officially your birthday—"

"You just want to be cheap," Charlie grumbled. "But you're right, no presents."

"Well I'm not sure what to get Quinn!"

"A dick in the box," Charlie responds flatly.

Santana chokes on her water and coughs, and then snorts trying not to laugh.

Rachel blinked, "If you're not going to be helpful—"

"I am being helpful Rachel. I'm telling you to get her a dick in the box. I mean I'm pretty sure that Quinn will enjoy getting into your—"

Santana covered Charlie's mouth to prevent her from finishing. "I'm sure Quinn will like anything you give her," Santana says, pinching Charlie's arm. "Behave."

"We go and see a Broadway show nearly every weekend Santana, I mean how can I compete with that?" Rachel questions, Quinn was rich and she could just buy whatever she wanted which made it impossible to shop for her.

"Dick-in-a—"

"Charlie," Santana snaps at her, but immediately softens when Charlie puffs out her cheeks in irritation. "Look as amusing as that would be and as hard as I'm sure Charlie and I will end up laughing, the best thing to give Quinn is something from the heart. Write her a song or do something equally as cheesy, and if you honestly can't think of it, do what Charlie suggested and have sex with her." Charlie leans in and whispers something in her ear. "Put a bow on your head and have sex with her."

"I mean a song is doable—"

"Girl I want to make you sweat

Sweat 'til you can't sweat no more

And if you cry out I'm gonna push it

Push it push it some more"

Charlie sang her voice cracking in odd places, but it was mostly passable as she looked at Santana and wiggled her eyebrows.

Santana stares at Charlie blankly, before picking up another roll with her chopsticks and popping it into her mouth. She chews slowly and swallows, "Please never serenade me again. I mean it wasn't the worst thing I've ever heard, but you're not a singer Charlie. But see Rachel, that was completely and utterly heartfelt serenading, and with your abilities a perfect way to lose that pesky thing you call virginity."

Rachel tilted her head at Charlie, "I can fix that, your singing that could be your birthday present!"

Before Charlie can agree or disagree, Santana immediately shakes her head, "No. She's already all powerful and rich, she doesn't need anymore skills Rachel. Are you trying to get her attacked by a mob of horny lesbians?"

"Wait—that can happen?" Charlie blinked and looked at Santana. "Like a bunch of women just ripping off my clothes and having a giant lesbian orgy? Sign me up!"

"See what you did Rachel!" Santana shakes her head.

Rachel blinked, "Are you two dating again?"

"No," Charlie and Santana reply at the same time.

"We're just friends," Santana adds.

Charlie turned to look over at Kitty, "Have you figured out how to clone other things yet?"

Kitty shot Charlie an unimpressed look, "Even if I learn how to clone other things and people, I am not going to clone Santana for you so you can have a Santana orgy."

"You're absolutely no fun," Charlie huffs puffing out her cheeks as she pouts.

Santana shoots Charlie and gently pats her on the hand, "We both know I'd probably get jealous even if it were copies of me."

~ O ~

"Unfortunately, while I understand the necessity of Quinn joining the Titans as a coach, she is the only capable person that I have to lead my team to a National Championship."

Frannie stared at Sue before turning to look at Quinn who immediately shrugged at that. "Quinn is the only capable person on your team?"

"You don't need to say that with such incredulity," Quinn muttered under her breath.

"Just how bad is the rest of your team?" Frannie questions, she immediately holds up her hands, "Don't answer that, I don't actually want to know how shitty the rest of your team is. You did make a commitment, and I understand that means something, and you have no incentive to allow Quinn a few days a week of skipping practice."

"You are correct, Quinn did make a commitment and I already bent the rules for her, she doesn't have to be in uniform all the time. That was the deal that we struck and when tragedy hit your family I gave her time off, without even being questioned. I had to rely on Bree, and that was an utter disaster. Quinn is an integral member of the team."

Frannie once again looks over at Quinn with a bit of disbelief on her features, "I still find that hard to believe, are they better or worse than Thing 2?"

"Better, but considering how bad she is, that's an incredibly low bar," Quinn retorts. "They are a national caliber team, even without me. They just choke at nationals, and that's hardly my fault. It might have something to do with the shenanigans and chicanery that you constantly pull to get us ahead of the other teams. Firing someone from a cannon is only going to hurt. It's a cheerleading competition and while I agree that the artistry is judged, we aren't highlighting what we can do. We're highlighting the cheap tricks that we can pull off."

Frannie sighed, "Sue, I understand your position as an educator myself, and while I think everything has it's time and place you risk having students at this school die, and I doubt that it will be as simple as falling asleep. I'm talking torn apart on television, as if we're ancient Rome and this is gladiatorial combat . I need her at least twice a week."

"That's not going to happen," Sue said immediately.

"I mean it's not like you can truly stop me, Quinn already has an acceptance to Yale, she really doesn't need this anymore. She can simply quit, I'm here to find a compromise so you get what you want, and I get what I want. I've heard that due to the success of the Titans, your budget has been slashed rather significantly."

Sue's eyes widened, "Oh?"

"Quinn is a budding philanthropist."

Quinn blinked and immediately turned to look at Frannie, "Frannie!"

"You are a budding philanthropist aren't you? How does the Sue Sylvester scholarship sound? On Top of triple your previous budget for the next two years?"

"Ten years."

"Let's split the difference and make it five," Frannie negotiates.

"I thought you'd be offering money—"

"Quinn, just by virtue of having the same face as Charlie you get 25% of all of Charlie's official merchandising deals. And unlike Charlie you're not an idiot with your money. I doubt very much that this will affect you in any way." Especially given the fact that Quinn had gotten a massive inheritance from her grandmother. Charlie had gotten the properties, Quinn had received the controlling interest in several massive and profitable companies. She would be jealous if her grandmother hadn't given her the same, as well as a massive trust. Brittany had simply gotten more cash then she would ever know what to do with.

Quinn grunted at this, she really didn't have a response to that. From Frannie's perspective, she was the richest out of all of them, and could simply afford it, but she didn't want to give Sue money at all. She wanted the world to think she was a philanthropist, not in bed with crazy people who shot teenagers out of cannons. She opens her mouth to protest when Frannie hits the decisive blow.

"I mean if you're fine with how Rachel is now, and you trust Charlie to give Rachel the help she needs to face off against level 3 monsters, then this whole thing is completely unnecessary—"

"Fine," Quinn hisses glaring at her older sister who smirks at her. One of these days, she had no idea what she was going to do but one of these days.

~ O ~

"And these are safe?" Carmen Tibideaux questioned. "There has been some push back that introducing artificial monsters to students might be disastrous."

"From Artemis July's granddaughter? Which one inherited her seat at the table?" Stan Edgar stated as he stood beside Carmen and they looked down at the plant, with the massive vat-like structures lining the facility, there was a purple glow coming from the tanks that contained massive black creatures.

"The youngest of her grandchildren, though Frannie was probably better suited to the role. Artemis probably thought she'd live for another 10 years, and by that time Charlie would have been ready. She's idealistic, she lacks Artemis's pragmatism. Artemis would have seen the need for this even if she didn't like it. And we are not in the business of murdering teenagers."

"Of course not, where would she get such an asinine idea?" Stan lets out a laugh. "Too much television, I imagine. These are perfectly safe, and they've been doing these types of experiments in Japan for decades now. These are artificial humans. This is the future of heroics and warfare. We take the body of deceased Augmented Individuals, and we modify them to hold multiple powers and then reanimate them as super-soldiers, controlled by us. In a few years heroes will be a thing of the past. Charlie Fabray won't be the only AI with multiple differing abilities."

"And this has presidential approval as well as congressional approval?"

"We've crossed our T's and dotted our I's." Stan answered. "This is the future, and if we're still going to have heroes then they should be better than these artificial humans, the Japanese man who invented this Dr. Kyudai Garaki has been experimenting with this for years. We have plenty of models for you to choose from, and we've ranked them."

"It needs to be a mid-level 3, strong but beatable," Carmen states.

"Come to the office, we can personalize what you need and how many you need. It would be fair if all the monsters that you need had the exact same powerset. Then no one can claim that their monster was tougher than other teams."

"Excellent idea, now how much is this going to cost us?" Carmen questions.

"For you old friend? I'll give you the friends and family discount," Stan says with a dark smile on his face. Vought could handle a lawsuit, but a bunch of dead teens wouldn't be good, unless—of course there was an incident. A way to stamp out the hopes of the next generation. Now he just needed to keep sowing discord amongst the ranks of the world's strongest and once they were divided the age of heroes would truly die.