"Can anyone answer this question?" Dr. Drew Theodore Lipsky questioned looking around at the bored students in his class, there were many glazed eyes and he scowled. Teach at Summit, you'd be molding the minds of the young heroes, sure the pay was good but most people failed his class and he only had a few students this year. "If any of you had bothered to do your readings—" he paused beady eyes falling on the newest member of his class who had a pair of headphones in and was currently watching something on her phone. "Charlie Fabray, is my class boring you?"

Charlie glanced up from where she was watching a stream of the National Inter-High competition, she tilted her head as everyone turned to look at her she glanced at the board for a second and sighed, she was doing this for her grandfather. "The answer is I/4."

Dr. Lipsky scowled at her, "Thats—" he paused and looked at his notes, "Correct?"

"The answer to your other question is yes," Charlie adds unhelpfully, before pointing at her phone. "National championships, so—" Charlie doesn't finish the sentence as she puts in her other headphones and leans back in her chair and continues to watch on her phone.

~ O ~

"Look at how determined all these teams look, and after such stunning performances for our opening ceremony," Rod Remington stated, as the crowd roared in approval. "I'm not one to blather on—my wife would tell you that's a lie. You have all worked extremely hard to get here, so without further ado let me explain the rules of our first event. Intel-gathering, back in my day we didn't have hundreds of analysts working for us and this is a throwback to the good old days of heroics. Each of you will be given a medallion, oh they're being handed out right now to the team captains. The goal of this activity is to not only protect the information you have, you can't have that information falling into enemy hands, your opponents here today."

Rod waited for the information to sink in as he watched the teams look over at the other teams, "There are four different medallions, and as some of you who are good at math have noticed, there are fifteen teams, which means that 5 teams will have the same badge, and one unlucky team, the winner of lasts year national competition will have two medallions. Since the goal is to collect the medallions that are not currently in your possession using whatever means necessary short of killing your opponent, you're probably wondering how that is fair. There are currently only two platinum medallions available. Did I forget to mention that there will be 4 heroes on the field to play the role of villains, if you are able to steal a medallion from them go for it. If a team is in possession of all four medallions at the end of today's competition or they manage to get to the safety zone with all 4 medallions in their possession they will get a bye for the next round. Meaning they will be straight through to the finals."

There was a buzz at this and Santana can immediately feel the teams eyeing them hungrily, it was going to be an utter pain to have every team coming at them all at once, if Charlie were on the team no one would have the balls to come after them. "They're looking down on us," Santana informs her team even as Rod continues to give instructions.

Blaine stretched his back out, "Can't you just knock them all out with a heat blast so we can go back inside, the hotel has a pool, and Frannie said that if we perform she'll cut us some slack."

Before anyone can say anything the ground quakes as trees and buildings start forming on the field, and the ground starts to move underneath them, breaking the teams up and sending them into different parts of the manufactured grounds. They couldn't just end the fight quickly and move on, that would be too easy and it seemed as if the commission had taken into account McKinley's penchant for breaking the competition just for shits and giggles. They had no intention of making this easy and by forcing the teams apart it would test everything from their communication, to how well their captains could command their teams. It forced engagement between teams, in other words the perfect first competition to separate the strong from the weak.

The ground suddenly stops moving and Santana looks up at the jumbotron to see that they have 3 minutes to formulate a plan of attack and she turns to look at the team as she taps her communication device so Frannie, Coach Beiste and their support team can listen in. "Alright we have two choices—"

'Take all the medallions.'

Santana blinked as Frannie interrupted her, "All the medallions but we only need two more."

'Take all the medallions, I want you to beat all the teams and all 4 of the heroes that are currently on the field. Taking the easy way doesn't play well with recruiters when you already have a perceived advantage, especially some of the bigger hero firms. Not to mention if you take all the medallions you can eliminate the more problematic teams by giving them to certain teams. You can get rid of PVA in the first round, a humiliating loss and revenge for last year. Also practice for the finals. If you want me to give you guys a day of relaxing by the pool then you're going to put the other teams through the paces and you will take every medallion and distribute it to the teams I tell you too.'

Santana glanced at her team who didn't look thrilled, "Do you have any suggestions?"

'I'm not doing your job for you Lopez, you're the captain. I'm telling you what the parameters of your mission are, how you choose to accomplish that is completely up to you.'

"That's helpful," Blaine grunted, tapping his communication device to turn it off briefly.

"I mean they're Fabray's, that's about as helpful as they get," Rachel commented. "They like to let us figure things out for ourselves."

"Know-it-all dicks," Kitty muttered, "Plus they like to do the whole instructions for thee and not for me, Charlie would have done the bare minimum, so she could stare at Santana in a bikini."

Santana rolled her eyes as the team nodded and glanced up at the time they had a minute and a half left. "Well we don't know where the other teams are, and we don't know where the 'villains' but we do have something all the other teams want, and if we make enough noise we might attract one of the professional heroes. We can use that to our advantage turning the heroes against the teams, and I figure that the person with the platinum medallion is going to be the most powerful hero that we could in theory defeat if we work together. So let's just swipe the damn medallion and then head for the safe zone." Santana said, tossing the medallion at Ryder, whose arm immediately turns platinum. "Artie."

"One for each member of the team?" Artie questions as he begins to draw out fake medallions. Making sure to clearly indicate that they were fake.

Santana nods as she thinks of the next part of the plan, Artie would make them look real enough that it would confuse the teams and cause them to fight amongst each other. The next step would to make sure that they knew where everyone was and more importantly that they knew where the Titans were located, the smarter teams would hold back just enough to see how the fight would go and if they made a show of losing one of their fake medallions it would cause absolute chaos amongst the teams. Dani might see through it, but even Dani would have a hard time picking out the real one. This event didn't need brute strength, it needed trickery and deceit. That's how they would win. "Tina, you need to be ready to run like hell, when we pick fights with the hero. Steal and retreat, even better if you manage to swap the fake one with the real one."

Tina grinned, "So your plan is to sow as much chaos as possible."

Santana glanced up as the buzzer sounded and looked at Artie who had just finished creating 12 perfect fake copies which he was quickly handing out to all the members of the team, before she took the original and hid it in the secret compartment of her uniform. She had thought Kurt had lost his mind but he had been brilliant coming up with their designs. She really did hope that Charlie got him that internship with Edna Mode. "Jason, biggest tree that you have. Artie, Ryder, Emma, Regina, operation rain fire is a go. Blaine, get ready, I want to be by the pool in under thirty minutes. Team with Regina and Emma. Finn, Artie, Sam and Rachel you're with Jason defending the tree which will be our base. Kitty, we need to find the safe zone."

~ O ~

Rod Remington stared at the carnage that was being committed and looked at his co-hosts for the event, "Is McKinley firebombing the other teams?" He questions slightly aghast. As Emma Swan flew on a summoned beast dropping what appeared to be water balloons all over the field indiscriminately. With every hit a fiery explosion was created setting the trees ablaze. He could hear the screaming from where he was standing as the entire battlefield was thrown into chaos, before he could even question the validity of such a strategy: a massive oak tree ripped from the ground with various members of McKinley on it, keeping them away from the carnage that was being caused.

"What in the world are they thinking? This is not how a hero fights." There was audible disgust in the voice of Candace Dystra, one of his co-hosts. "They're acting like terrorists!"

"I mean that's a bit harsh, but I am concerned about the departure from Charlie's style of leadership, I've noticed the increased brutality that McKinley has been showing, bullying the other teams. This is in poor taste, and I have to wonder what their former captain has to say about it. I mean considering she's been on record being critical of heroes, I can't imagine she's thrilled that Santana Lopez chose to proceed in that manner."

Before Rod can make a comment, a portal opens up and Charlie literally appears wheeling in on an office chair, a bored look on her face causing a shock in the studio as the camera's whip towards her. She spins in her seat as she joins the table, "Hey Rod, I hope you don't mind but I was watching the analysis, even though I'm supposed to be in class right now, and honestly I can't stay long."

Rod grinned happily glad that he had managed to foster a relationship with the young hero, she was generally antagonistic to the media, but she seemed to be fine with a few questions he motions for someone to get her mic'd up quickly, "You know you're always welcome on the show Charlie, and of course I suppose you want to make a rebuttal to the statements that Cameron Coleman were making, try and avoid using any expletives, children are watching."

Charlie glanced at the camera and then the smarmy newscaster, he was from Vought, she was beginning to run into them more and more often and it was driving her nuts. "I just want to be clear about the parameters of this particular competition, so the audience at home understands. They weren't there to rescue anyone, correct?"

"Correct," Rod agrees. "The purpose was intel gathering, it was something we did in the good old days of heroics, when we had to find out what the supervillains were planning, it's a call back to that."

"And there are absolutely no civilians present?" Charlie asks.

"Well, no—I mean the energy fields are keeping the spectators safe, and as far as I know there are no hidden civilians on the field," Rod says, letting out a laugh. "I didn't expect to be interviewed by you."

"I'm just making sure I understand before I give my thoughts on my former team, you're right this is everything that I dislike about modern heroics, because it puts civilians at risk, and the job of a hero is to protect people. But if you can stop a villain before they can attack, take the chance if you have the ability to make their plans for world domination redundant, and if you can bring them in then take it. That doesn't make them terrorists, it makes them proactive. Honestly, while I probably wouldn't burn a forest down to make a point, I would have taken out every team and handed them over to the relevant authorities. Besides this is a competition, and as I said in my rousing speech to the team at the opening ceremony, in war, victory. Overwhelming victory. And that is what the Titans are showing you here. Also, in their defense they trained with me and I may have broken their perception of what normal power is when it comes to other teenagers."

Rod blinked, "And the Titans sudden power jump makes sense. We were wondering why they were so much more powerful than other teams and simply steamrolling the competition, it's your fault."

"Guilty." Charlie admits spinning in her chair, "I should probably get back to class—" she moves to remove the microphone when Rod waves at her and she looks at him.

"Can I get your thoughts on the use of live monsters, I know you've had your people giving your thoughts on the matter, but a team like McKinley given what we've seen should be able to handle it no problem."

"I thought you didn't want me to swear on your broadcast Rod," Charlie responds before trying to remember what her PR person had said, she quickly gives up because she hadn't been paying attention. "What the commission fails to understand is that I'm not normal compared to other teenagers my age, I'm hardly the bastion of maturity most of the time, trying to create the next Charlie Fabray will get people killed. I've been a level 5 since I was a child, Rod, so I've always had tremendous power, and I'm fully aware of the responsibility that comes with it. It was drilled into me, and even still in New York and the monster that the media called Doomsday it was the first time that I had ever felt that someone was actively trying to kill me. And I nearly forgot all my training. I mean now everyone is trying to kill me, so it's hardly terrifying anymore. But I nearly forgot my training and I've been trained since I was a child. If I almost forgot my training, I shudder to think what will happen to them, they will panic, and they will falter, and they will get hurt, all so the Commission can have its ratings. I just hope that all we get are injuries and no one dies. Now I really must get back to class, they're probably going to confiscate my phone," Charlie grumbles, removing her microphone and pushing off against the table as she wheels herself through an open portal, which closes immediately.

"Well there you have it, a powerful statement and prediction from the Charlie Fabray. I heard she's finally got a supersuit!"

"Designed by Edna Mode, how exciting," Candace says, looking slightly shell shocked. "She's incredibly down to earth!"

"I think she's over exaggerating the danger. These monsters have gone through several trials, and while they are strong I don't believe that anyone is in any danger. I resent the implication that this is just a ploy for ratings. We need stronger heroes and we need to separate the strong heroes from the weak ones," Cameron Coleman began ready to launch a defense of Trask Industries product.

~ O ~

Tina grinned as she managed to swipe yet another medallion and swap it out for a fake one, it hadn't been that difficult. Spycraft apparently came easy to her and learning to pick pockets had been a fun experience, which she knew could land her in jail if she chose to go off the wrong path. But with abilities like hers she didn't have that many options, she didn't have the power to be a hero like Santana or Artie, which meant that she could join a government agency. She quickly hands over the medallion to one of Emma's summons watching as it takes off. Three teams down, now if she could find the hero that had the platinum medallion they'd be one step closer to hitting the 5-star hotel. Frannie had paid for it and it came with a free massage that she was dying to get.

She moves to a clear area and taps her communications device. "Incoming, another swap successful. That makes three. How many teams left?"

'Santana and Blaine have engaged with the platinum medallion hero, and could use the back up. But be careful from Emma's last report some of the other teams are converging hoping to pick off Santana and Blaine.'

"PVA?" Tina questions her voice turning slightly hard. They had caught her by surprise last year but she wasn't going to allow that to happen again and if she could manage to screw them over then it would all the better.

'Yeah, they're currently just waiting bloody poachers, Dani's playing this conservatively, but I don't think she's realized that we've got planned, but we have to assume that she has her web set up and that she's looking for you. Let anyone who could sneak up on them.'

"Fuck," Tina swore. Only four people on the team had been given permission to engage with Dani if it came to it and she hadn't made the list. At least she hadn't been given permission to engage with Dani—at least not at close range. But if there was one thing that she had learned from Charlie it was that it paid to be annoying as fuck. She taps her communication. "I'm going to need a pick up and tell Artie, that I'm going to lay down some suppressing fire forcing Dani to split her attention, it should give Regina a bit of an edge which should allow her to swap out the medallions and pull back."

~ O ~

Santana pulled on her collar as she stumbled backwards and shook off the pain in her arms as Sasha Banks smirked at her and flipped the platinum coin up in the air. She was starting to overheat again, and she could feel her flames starting to sputter.

"You okay?" Blaine questioned as he gripped his arm, Sasha Banks had put him in a submission hold before Santana had managed to break it with a fireball.

"Peachy," Santana grimaced as she pulled off her jacket and tossed it to him, "Retreat."

"What? Do you have heat stroke?" Blaine questions as he catches the jacket.

"No, but I need space and you're getting in my way," Santana snaps at him, she didn't mean to be harsh, but holding her flames back was draining her faster than she intended. "I've got to treat this as if I was sparring with Charlie, without the durability, I can do this."

Blaine hesitated, "This isn't because Charlie has this weird relationship with her is it? And flirts with her nonstop, is it?" Santana slowly turned to look at him and he swallows, "Right, stupid question, of course it is. I'll be relieving the teams of their medallions. Try not to murder her."

Santana flipped Blaine off and turns her attention back to Sasha Banks, her body erupting in flames, but her skin itched something fierce but she ignored it. "Let's do this."

"You're not going to win, you realize that right?" Sasha stated, "I do have a reputation to uphold," Sasha said, spotting a drone which she teleports in front of and picks it up and adjusts it so it gets her good side. "Hey Charlie!" She said winking into it.

Santana rolled her eyes, "Was that supposed to get under my skin? She had a crush on you and the moment that she started dating me she realized how problematic your flirting was. She's 4 and a half, you're 40. It's criminal."

Sasha blinked, she had only just turned 30, she was supposed to go easy on the teenagers, but she couldn't let that insult just slide. "This is going to hurt, and I'd like to say I apologize for that but—I don't think I'm going to feel sorry at all."

"Bring it," Santana snaps, her body growing hotter, even as the itchy sensation intensifies.

~ O ~

Quinn jumped as Charlie appeared beside her suddenly reaching into her snack bucket, it was supposed to be a long day. "Aren't you supposed to be at Summit?"

"It's school and boring Quinn," Charlie answers as she stuffs a fistful of popcorn into her mouth, "Besides, how can I miss two hot women fighting over me?"

Quinn stared at her sister, "How anyone finds you attractive is beyond me."

"And yet there are two women about to battle to the death to win my affection," Charlie grinned before clearing her throat and attempting to look somber, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "You think that they'll suggest a time-sharing agreement? I'm not opposed to—"

"Seriously, how do women think you're attractive that they're willing to fight to the death over you?" Quinn interrupts, shoving Charlie who immediately huffs and tries to reach for more snacks.

"I keep telling you I'm really good at sex and relationships. Like if a woman I'm with doesn't have at least three org—" Charlie yelped as she felt her underwear freeze and glared at her twin.

"We're in public, and you're acting like an idiot," Quinn hissed. "Go back to school, you shouldn't be here."

"Fine, but you should probably text Frannie that they need to get to the safe zone, Santana's bioelectrical signal is all over the place and I'm concerned."

Quinn frowned ever so slightly, "Like she's going to explode or—"

Charlie tilted her head for a moment before shaking her head. "No, she's not going to explode, at least that's not the vibe I'm getting. She'll probably be fine, but fighting Sasha is annoying even for me. Santana's going to need to out think her, rather than bruteforce her way through her—did you really have to freeze my underwear, you do realize that it's sexual harassment right?"

"Go back to class Charlie," Quinn says, shoving Charlie who uses the momentum to fall through a portal. With a roll of her eyes, Quinn turns her personal viewing device back to watching Rachel.

~ O ~

Sasha Banks rarely ever made mistakes, not when it came to judging talent. She just knew who had it. Charlie had power in spades, and was a semi-competent brawler if the occasion called for it. It was easy enough to goad her into fighting the way she wanted. She didn't need to be a competent fighter, her toolset seemed neverending and she truly believed that Charlie just made things up as she went along. Her lack of predictability and power and ever shifting moods made her incredibly dangerous to spar with, and it was clear that she had spent many hours sparring with different opponents and trying to figure out what worked. She shuddered to think what would happen if Charlie actually took sparing seriously instead of just experiments to see what worked and what didn't.

"Fuck," Sasha hissed in pain as she tried to put some distance between her and Santana, there were burns all over her forearms. Santana was matching her blistering pace and was relentless. Frannie. This had Frannie's mitts all over it, it wasn't as if Santana knew where she was going to show up, but her reflexes were a cut above the rest and unlike Charlie who preferred to simply brawl because she thought it looked cool. Santana's movements were fluid, if she attempted to push the pace Santana would push it just a bit more, using her flames as if they were jetpacks to increase the velocity of her blows.

She hadn't thought to look twice at Santana Lopez and she was quickly regretting it, but she should have known better. Frannie didn't waste her time on people that she thought was beneath her. But even with that knowledge she had fought and beaten Charlotte before and Charlotte had the ability to create a whole ass sun. She could only imagine the shit that Becky and Charlotte would give her for losing to Santana. She was supposed to lose to a team, not one goddamn teenager, and she could practically feel Frannie's smug smirk like she had predicted this completely. And as the seconds ticked by she was starting to feel the effects of the extreme heat as it got harder and harder to breathe let alone move.

Sasha barely manages to dodge again before she feels someone tackling her, knocking her to the ground, she teleports again leaving the body on the ground only to teleport twice to get away from the massive summoned bird. She blinks and reaches for the medallion only to notice the missing weight and turns to look at Regina who is holding up the medallion proudly and smiling at Santana who had finally stopped. "Seriously?" Sasha grumbles as she teleports the medallion back into her hand. "Nice try."

Regina looked stunned as Santana who looked absolutely haggard as her flames sputter ot and she's left gasping for air , "Fuck you ruined my concentration," Santana snapped at Regina who appears to flinch even as Emma drops down and steps in front of Regina protecting her.

"We already have all the medallions we need Santana, you lost and that's okay it doesn't matter. This was just supposed to be a feather in our cap, let's get to the safe zone. You look like shit."

Santana shoved Emma off her, and was about to flame up again when her communicator comes to life and she listens quickly before scowling at Sasha, who had teleported a safe distance away. "Next time."

"There isn't going to be a next time," Sasha scoffed, like hell she was putting herself through that again. Santana was probably the most dangerous teenager on the field at the moment. Next time she'd send Charlotte to clean up.

~ O ~

Emma grinned at Santana as they flew back to their tree base, "She bought it hook, line and sinker. Good thinking Regina," she said, signing towards her.

Santana flashed an amused smile, as she looked at the platinum medallion. "Who fucking knew Sam's weird magic obssession would be useful."

Regina signed, "And Rachel's acting lessons, I can't believe she bought that," Emma laughed as she voiced what Regina had signed.

Santana smirked, "Well we're still going to be by the pool within the hour, I'm starving. Let's hand out the medallions to the teams Frannie wants us to and head to the safe zone. How's the rest of the team doing?"

"I'm pretty sure they're fucking with PVA now, Tina and Artie have been laying down suppressing fire and Dani's been forced to be on the defensive. Blaine's been handing out medallions like Robin Hood to some of the weaker teams. Rachel, Kitty, Finn and Jason, Sam and Ryder are ready to move out when we arrive and the rest of the team arrives."

Santana nodded and looked up at the jumbotron for a moment. McKinley had pulled off another perfect score and she had managed to push Sasha Banks into actually fighting her, that was a win in her book, but she was so tired and her skin felt raw. She wondered if Frannie would mind helping her contact Brittany just to do a check up.