Well, here I go to start this endeavor...

Takes place season eight of Supernatural and Pre-Young Justice universe.

"No!"

He doesn't remember much about the 'before'. Sure, he remembers the possibility of a 'before' the deep, dark woods and he can still hear the echo of laughter in his mind.

His laughter.

The memories of those times, however, remained hidden in his mind like a gray mist and would only reflect shadows whenever he had a brief reprieve. Literally. Shadows. That was all he had.

There was a clear and distinct line where the muddy memories and the sharp, crisp moments in the time of 'now'. One day. It could have been on any given day: Sunday, Friday, Clear, rainy. He woke up in the woods to the sounds of howling. Quick on his feet, because apparently, being quick was something important and he did well at that, he jumped up and scanned the area before he even realized what was going on or question who he even was.

Most people, he would guess later, would worry more about the blanks.

He saw nothing to connect the sounds he heard but some greater instinct told him that he was surrounded and that there was danger somewhere behind those trees.

Find the advantage. Get to higher ground.

He wasn't going to question the voice in his mind. Not when the howling stopped and was replaced with a low growl.

Correction. Many low growls.

From all around him.

He jumped as high as he could to grab onto the first branch above him. A quick swing and his feet were on the same branch. Many more jumps and swings and he was able to reach as high as the strongest branch that could hold his weight. He looked down at the creatures converging at the base of his tree. Six...no seven gathered around his lone tree.

He didn't know what these creature were. They looked human except for the excessive amount of body hair and there were points on their hands that were much too sharp to be fingers.

"Look what we have here," one of the creatures called out to to the others, not quite clear from where he sat but he would take a guess that the sharp fangs could impede any clear conversation from happen. How he knew this, he couldn't tell.

"Fresh meat!" The growls and yips grew louder all round at the declaration.

Could they climb too? If they were human, they might be able to reach him.

As if to test that theory, one of the creatures jumped up and its sharp not-fingers dug hard into the bark of the tree. His immediate reaction was to reach for something at his belt only to come up with nothing. Panic didn't set in until that point. His breath hitched and he patted the baggy sweatshirt he was wearing like he could do anything, he could save the world, if he just had his damn belt.

And honestly, if he thought too much about it, he should be panicking more because he had no idea what a belt could do.

'No doubt about it,' he thought as watching the creature try to rip his claws out of the tree so it could reach the first branch up.

He was defenseless.

You are only defenseless if you think you are.

Think!

The creature was having problems getting up to the branch. Too heavy to hold the creature's weight, he didn't realize just how small and light he was until the branch shook so violently in objection of its new inhabitant. He had that for an advantage then. They would have to rely entirely on their claws to get up the trunk of the tree.

He could use that.

"Come on, Little Red," one on the ground yelled back up to him, presumably the leader of the pack. "Come on down. We haven't had a snack since we got here."

Ew. No.

"Little piggy, little piggy, let me in!" Another called out, causing a ripple of laughter among the others. "Come on down or we'll blow your house down!"

He didn't exactly know what was meant by that until he looked down to his wardrobe. The lack of a belt was hard to handle, but the cape and hood he was wearing felt like...home. The black in the sweatshirt was a bit confusing like he shouldn't be the one hiding in the dark, but the red in the hood was familiar if not perplexing. His clothing was out of order, he was sure of it.

But he at least knew enough about fairy tales to know that the idiot below was getting his stories mixed up.

The creature climbing the tree gave up on the branch by now and strictly stuck to attaching itself to the trunk.

Think!

Right. What did he have? He was stuck in a tree without a clue who he was or how he got here. He was surrounded by a pack of creatures out of some horror movie with no normal means of defense and no idea if reinforcements were coming.

No.

No, that was what he didn't have. What did he have?

Sweatshirt and jeans. Sneakers. A red riding hood. A tree. Pine-

There.

The tree was a variety of pine that he was unfamiliar with, but he had easy access to as many pine needles and pine cones as he could ever desired. He plucked one of the pine cones and examined it. There must not be much water out where he was because the cone came off easily and just started to crumble in his hand as he slightly squeezed it.

It was perfect.

Now if only his aim was just as good. He might actually have a shot at loosening his creepy tree-hugger.

A thousand thoughts and variations went through his head in a split second: wind speed, distance, thrust and angle. Then, as he threw his arm up, pine cone in hand, all those thoughts stopped. There was nothing more than him, the pine cone and his target.

His arm dropped.

He watched in amazement as the pine cone carried on with its oncoming path down. Aided by gravity and the extra thrust of his arm, the cone sailed down just as the creature looked up towards its prey. A mistake on the creature's part because the pine cone's target hit right into its face, blown apart into many pieces and getting right into the creature's vulnerable eyes.

The creature screamed in pain and, since both its claws were lodged tightly in the tree, there wasn't anything it could do immediately to get rid of the debris in its face. The delay made it worse as the creature tugged harshly to pull away from the trunk and the failing action caused it to dislodge and fall heavily to the ground.

He looked down at the creatures gathering around its fallen companion and he smirked.

This little bird can bite.

The pack leader looked back up and growled, deep and throaty. "You can't stay up there forever, kid! You have to come down eventually!"

No way. He'll stay up here just fine until he's out of pine cones or options.

His life kind of depended on it.

He was able to grab for the next pine cone in retaliation when there was another scream and primal growl coming from somewhere in the bushes behind them. The bush rustled violently and a man came crashing out of it.

This man was not like the other creatures, although he growled like them. The man looked human for one and the second the group saw the man and the strange looking blade he griped in his hand, they all took a step back as if afraid of the stranger.

Oh, come on! He just backed them off with nothing more than a pine cone and this guy comes out alone and, suddenly, there is the threat.

He was totally not feeling the 'im' in impressed right now.

"Dean!"

Or maybe the guy isn't alone after all...

Another man came up on the other side of their little chaotic circle. With dark nautical clothing, it would have looked as if the man missed port by a whole ton of miles.

"Dean, what did I tell ya about running off on your own? We cannot pick a fight with every vamp or wolf that comes our way."

That sounded like a New Orleans accent. Light, but distinctive. He wasn't that far off about the port, then. Is that where they were? The trees looked more like Pacific Northwest but he wasn't sure what he could believe at this point.

The man, the first one who showed up, looked up and set his eyes right at him. He suddenly knew why the creatures were backing down. The look on the man..this Dean..was feral. He had a feeling this guy could hunt each one of those things down with that sharp, boney-looking blade and he wouldn't even bat an eye at each whack made.

The other man must have looked up to the tree because he heard an 'Oh'. A little bit of realization as to the situation.

"Why is there a child here?"

Another voice, gravelly and grim came from behind him and it took all in him not to slip and fall. He may have been focused on the conversation below him but he was totally not okay with the idea of not hearing anyone coming up behind him. When he did turn to look at the new intruder to his 'maybe rescue party', he saw a dark-hair man with a stubble beard and in a trench coat. Of all things to wear.

Curiouser and curiouser.

"You tell me, Cas," Dean growled back. "What kind of monster takes on the form of Little Red Riding Hood?"

"Dean-"

'Cas' never had the chance to answer because one of the creatures decided he didn't like the idea of being surrounded (yeah, like he enjoyed that feeling either) and decided to attack the second man on the side, probably thinking he was the weaker of the group.

He probably did slip a inch off the branch when New Orleans changed. *Physically* changed. Something happened to the guy's mouth because within seconds he had fangs sharper than the overgrown dogs baying at the base of his tree and his eyes gleaned like reflectors.

Seriously?

The rest took the clash between the two monsters as a signal and split up, half going towards Dean and the rest towards Trench Coat Guy. He wasn't sure how well these men were in a fight between a pack of monsters, but he was also certain he wasn't going to let these three think he was some kid in need of rescuing.

It may have looked it, but he was pretty sure he wasn't. It was a lot easier now to be on the offense when he now knew he had someone to watch his back.

Don't be afraid to ask for help when the odds are against you.

He took the cape off and shook it out, making sure it would be durable enough for what he planned. The small branch he was sitting on groaned under his weight as he stood up, but it was a short burden to bear.

The next second, he was flying.

He caught himself quickly jumping down onto the branches below in much the same way he went up. Only this time, like the pine cone before, gravity left him a faster and more dangerous projectile as he headed straight for the closest creature about to take off Dean's head.

He planted the cape right onto the creatures head instead, wrapped it around and effectively blinding the creature from its goal to maim one of his 'rescuers'.

"Kid!"

He wasn't paying attention to the yell. He was too busy doing a back flip off of the creature in order to get away from any dangerous pointy bits and managed to kick the creature in the head in the process. When it looked like he just winded the beast, he did another flip forwards, his hands on the ground and pushed off with a twist to aim another kick at its head.

This time, the creature laid on the ground, clocked cold, never even having the chance to escape from the cape thrown upon it.

Two tries? That was a bit disappointing in his mind. He grabbed the cape from the creature and put it back on before moving onto the other creatures-

-only to find the rest were taken care of by the others. The last of the creatures, Mr. Leader of the Pack, was last, leaning against the very tree he just jumped out of, showing off the grisly, sharp teeth he had clearly missed the size of when he was up high.

The leader snarled and hissed in a last stand attempt before Dean, as cool and steady as an android, threw his blade behind him and decapitated the creature clean through its neck. The head lobbed off and rolled right past the two of them before it rested next to one of its peers.

Also without a head. He looked around the ground and quickly realized that the creature he fought was the only one still breathing. The rest...

What has he gotten himself into?

"Kid."

He snapped out of his shock quick enough to see Dean with New Orleans take a step closer towards him and he was *not* okay with that. He jumped towards Dean. Dean stopped and raised his blade in retaliation but wasn't expecting for the jump to land high over him and used Dean's shoulders to vault himself up back to the branch the creature tried to climb onto before.

As suspected, the branch held his weight just fine and he crouched down, ready to get higher if the threat came close again.

He could do this all day if he had to.

And, crazy enough, he might actually have to.

Seriously, what is going on here?

"Seriously?" Dean echoed. "We have kid monsters running around here too?"

"Dean," Cas tried to call attention, but Dean wasn't having it. He turned to New Orleans instead.

"What do you think, Benny? A monster killed too soon or a kid turned into a monster?"

New Orleans...Benny sighed and gave a dejected look to his companion. "Dean..."

"Shape shifter? Werewolf? Vamp? May-maybe a vamp like you, Benny." There was just a hint of desperation there, like Dean was trying to keep it together just by a thread.

"Dean!"

Benny didn't struggle when Dean pushed him into the tree trunk. He didn't even bat an eye when Dean didn't think he got his point across and slammed him again. "You've got to give me something! A vamp means he was born human. A vamp we can take him with us! A vamp we can sa-"

Dean stopped himself as he realized what he was doing and took a shaky breath before releasing Benny. Slowly, he rubbed his face and paced back and forth a bit. Both his companions waited for Dean to calm down before they said anything.

"Dean." It was trench coat Cas who broke the silence. "He's not a vampire."

Dean hung his head, his fists clenched tight.

"The kid's human," Benny finished off.

Dean's head snapped up to Benny, his eyes wide in shock before looked straight up to the branch he was sitting on. All three of them looked right at him.

He did not appreciate the scrutiny.

"Human!" Dean sounded shocked and in awe. Maybe a little angry as well. "I thought I was the only human in this hellhole! What is a kid doing here?"

"I don't know, Dean," Cas responded. "I do know he is radiating the same type of energy here that you are. None of the monsters have that type of presence. He is clearly human."

Benny rolled his eyes and huffed. "Maybe you should try asking him how he got here."

The vampire, the human and the...whatever-he-was all waited in expectation, waiting for the answer to a question they haven't technically asked.

Dean's patience was apparently wearing thin. "So? Who are you and how did you get into Purgatory, kid?"

The million dollar question indeed.

"I...I don't know."

He was in Purgatory? The only purgatory he knew was the in between of life and the afterlife.

Was he dead?

"What do you mean you don't know?" Dean growled.

He jumped off the branch, did a back flip and landed on the other side of the three men. He might believe that they weren't an immediate threat to him right now seeing that they seemed to be helping him, but he didn't like the idea of him being trapped up there while they were having this conversation. If things ever went south, he'd be in a much better position to defend himself on the ground with a large enough gap between this group.

"I mean... I don't remember."

"You don't remember how you got here," Dean clarified.

"No." Clearly he was going on the defense here from the way Dean and the rest of his posse stared at him with a mix of surprise and disbelieve.

Dean sighed. "Then how about a name?"

That was met with silence. He looked down to slightly scuff the dirt with his sneakers, trying hard not to think about why he couldn't answer. When he looked back up, eyebrows lifted from Dean's face as there was dawning realization.

"You don't remember your name either?"

He shrugged. What could he say?

"A kid with no name." Dean groaned and threw his head up to the sky. "You have got to be kidding me."

Cas took a step closer, studying and scrutinizing him in a way that might be a bit to uncomfortable. He took a step back to match the distance between them. He still had no idea what this guy was. All he knew was that he wasn't human and he got the 'powerful being' vibes that told him he didn't want to mess with.

"You have no recollection to your past?" Cas asked. "None at all?"

No! Rob-

"Rob! My name is Rob."

Dean turned his head away from the heavens back to him. Benny lifted an eyebrow and Cas just watched the situation as it played out.

"...I think... Maybe?"

Dean sighed. "Great. This is going to be great."