"Dean… Dean," Seth was whispering harshly.
Dean brought his head up with a snap then regretted it immediately. Pain blossomed through his head and thumped in his temples. He blinked his eyes open and then quickly shut them again. Too fucking bright. It was way too bright in the goddamn room. Ugh, fucking hell. He had been electrocuted. He had to have been. Stupid TV. Stupid wires. He knew this feeling. His fingertips felt horrible and waxy. His body was shivering with the shock. Nausea rolled in his stomach. Fuck. Worst fucking feeling ever.
"Hmmph," Dean groaned out, attempting to open his eyes again but decided against it. A hand shoved at his shoulder. Nice, Rollins, real nice, Dean thought, shove a guy when he's down, why don't you? "Lemme just sit here for a minute and recover, Rollins, jeeze," Dean grumbled. "That hit fucking took all the air out of me."
"Are you fucking kidding me right now? I barely tapped you. Get your shit together, Ambrose!" Was Seth's hushed, biting reply.
Dean opened one eye and looked at Seth's face. He was dressed in his Shield gear, hair pulled back in a pony tail, black vest tight over his chest. Huh, what the fuck was he doing in his Shield kit. They were just sitting around in their workout clothes. Literally, just sitting around in their shorts and shirts watching the fucking television. When did he fucking change? Blinking again, he looked down at his own clothes. He had on his tight black shirt and black tactical pants with his combat boots. Uh, did they dress him too while he was passed out? He knew they were brothers and all, but that was a bit far for his comfort zone. Nobody got to dress him… unless it was… well, those were thoughts for another time. For now, what the fuck?
He looked over at Roman, who was seated with them at a long wooden table. Two things… One: Roman was also in full Shield regalia, hair pulled back in a bun and looking as menacing as ever as he glared at the two of them arguing. And two: where the fuck was he?
"Are you two done over there or do I need to come knock your heads together? Pay attention!" Roman's hushed voice reached him, full of frustration.
"Um, done?" Dean brought his hand up to touch his head. Did he hit it? Was he in a coma? This had to all be a dream. There had to be an explanation. Were they in a creative meeting? Did he really just lose all that time from yesterday while he was watching TV with the boys to today where they were sitting in a creative meeting… in a HUGE fucking office in a sky-rise? He looked out the window. They had to still be in Seattle. He could see the waterfront and the Space Needle from where he sat. Pretty view… wait, why were they here? They should be at the arena for any creative meetings.
He turned his head to see the other people in the meeting, maybe that would give him more answers. His eyes widened in shock as he took in three people he did not expect to be there. Corporate Kane was sitting at the head of the table, pointer in hand, gesturing at a picture on a huge screen. The picture was… gross. Dean couldn't fathom why creative was making them look at something like this. What fucking direction was the Shield headed in if they had to look at a mutilated corpse?
The girl in the picture was dead. That much was evident from the blood, the giant fucking hole in her chest and the way her head was hanging off to the side in an unnatural way. Also… so much fucking blood. Nausea rolled up in Dean's stomach again. What the fuck was going on?
Corporate Kane was droning on about something, but Dean couldn't hear over the buzzing in his ears. He had been electrocuted… he had lost a whole fucking evening… and now, he was sitting here with creative looking at some gory ass shit on a projector screen while his brothers wrote down notes furiously.
Next to Kane sat Triple H and… Shawn Michaels? Both were paying attention and nodding frequently. Degeneration X was coming back? Were they planning on having some sort of horror type Halloween show? It wasn't close to Halloween, was it? Dean wracked his brain, trying to figure out what calendar day it was. Weren't they doing the shows just after WrestleMania right now? That was NO WHERE close to October or Hell in a Cell.
"Mr. Ambrose?" Corporate Kane's voice finally caught his attention. "Am I boring you?"
"Uh, no, I'm good. All good here, Mr. Kane. Not bored at all," he said as he tried unsuccessfully to avoid looking at the disfigured corpse on the screen.
"If I need to remind you that there are fiery consequences for those who do not pay attention and heed warning signs…" Corporate Kane's voice had dropped at least an octave and his face took on a threatening look. Dean's eyes grew large as he watched Corporate Kane's face, remembering all the fights with the Demon Kane. He shook his head slowly.
"At least that's what the fire prevention safety poster says in my office, anyway," Corporate Kane said with a shrug and a big toothy grin.
Dean let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and shot him what he hoped would pass for a smile. Shit, what the fuck was going on? He felt Rollins stomp on his foot and he shot him a glare. Fucking hell, stop beating me the fuck up… stupid Seth.
"Good, good, let's continue," Corporate Kane said in his normal voice, almost too happy at the prospect of describing the mutilated girl in detail. "Alright, this is what we know right now: there is someone or something killing magical folk. Their hearts are missing, which makes me think of some sort of demon… hence you guys being called in. Not that demons are a bad thing," he chuckled self-deprecatingly. "No humans have been found so far, but they might be later, or they might be just being completely devoured." He said the last part with a nonchalant shrug. Dean's stomach was rolling in full force. Magical people? Humans being devoured?
"So," Triple H finally spoke up, "you three can see why we brought you in on this one. I know that there's not been much down time for you guys lately, but we could really use your help. You just finished that job regarding the trolls in Freemont, right?"
Seth nodded and said, "Yeah, fucking disgusting shits."
Dean's eyes widened at that. Trolls?!
Roman chuckled and said, "It wasn't so bad, H, just one of them took a slight fancy to Rollins here and tried to kiss him under the bridge. She thought it was romantic." He shot an amused look at Seth. "He disagreed and spent the next two hours washing his mouth out with Listerine."
Dean snorted, and Seth shot him a dirty look. "At least I get play, fucker," he sneered under his breath.
"OK you two, although we appreciate the humorous show, enough is enough," Triple H said with authority. Dean glared at Seth but turned back to face the other man. "We believe that the person or thing responsible for this is looking for something. We're not sure what, but that's where you come in. You use those noses of yours and sniff out anything that's wrong in the city. You should be able to find it and hopefully eradicate it before it gets too much further out of hand."
Shawn Michaels finally spoke and said, "Yes, and if you would try not to get yourselves killed that would be beneficial to us all, since the time before the trolls was… messy, to say the least."
Seth hummed in confirmation and Roman averted his eyes. Dean looked at them in confusion. Messy? Just how messy were they talking if the fucking girl on the screen was a better fucking situation?
Roman looked at the three at the head of the table, then to his two brothers. He gave a nod to them and said, "I think we could help you out here. Usual fee. Half in advance, half when we figure this out. Wire it to the usual place."
"Good, good," Triple H said, tenting his hands before him and leaning on the table. "Just one more thing, there's been talk…" He cleared this throat and shot a glance at Shawn. Shawn nodded slowly as if giving permission, and Triple H continued, "There's been talk that there might, and it's a long shot, but there might be a unicorn out there who's in the middle of all of this."
Seth sucked in a sharp breath beside Dean. "Really?" He asked in awe. "I thought those had all died out ages ago."
"So did we, Mr. Rollins, but I have it on good authority that there have been sightings in the area over by Magnolia. We're not sure why a unicorn would make Seattle their home, but it would make sense that whatever this thing is that is hunting in our city would try to find it. And, we don't have to tell you, gentlemen, that would be very bad for business," Triple H replied.
Roman looked at Dean and Seth for a moment then said softly, "I thought only a virgin could capture one of them… according to lore, that is." A blush tinged his cheeks when he said this, and Dean couldn't hold back a snort.
Seth snickered as well and mocked, "Well we've got Ambrose, so if we need to capture it… it's all good, brother."
Dean shot a filthy look his way and stomped down on Seth's toes… hard. Seth yelped in protest and smacked him on the arm again. Dean shot a nasty smirk towards Seth. Bizarre fucking dream be damned, he wasn't going to be made fun of in a reality that he was making up in his sleep.
"Right, well, lore is, after all, just that," Shawn said. "I don't think the virgin thing comes into play. Besides, if there is a unicorn out there we need to make sure it is safe from any harm. So, add that onto the current job and all should be good, yes?"
Seth nodded and replied, "Gonna add to the fee there Michaels, an extra… shall we say 50?"
Triple H choked on his coffee and slammed it down in front of him. He shot an un-amused look toward Seth. "50? Where the fuck do you think you are, boy?"
Shawn hummed in frustration and put a hand on H's arm. "We can do 50, just make sure there's no harm. And, also, make sure this whole thing is fixed without too much bloodshed." He arched an eyebrow at Dean and pointed a finger his way, "Can you do that, Ambrose?"
Dean's eyes grew wide and he gave a curt nod. Bloodshed? What the fuck did they just agree to?
The meeting adjourned and the three of them got up to leave the building. Roman walked out first, followed by Seth and Dean. Dean's head was swimming. For being a dream, this was pretty shitty. At least in most of his dreams he had some idea of what was going on. Here he was just confused and pretty sure that he had just agreed to something that might require them to actually kill something.
"So, what the fuck is up with you, Ambrose?" Seth said as soon as they hit the sidewalk outside the huge sky-rise. "I realize you're the fucking lunatic in our group, but that doesn't mean you have to almost ruin a fucking meeting about a new job."
"What? Uh, nothing's wrong?" Dean looked down at his shoes as he walked and tried to figure out why they were so fucking dirty. They were caked in mud and what looked to be dried blood. What did they do for a living in this dream of his?
"I hate to agree with Seth here, uce," Roman said. Seth snorted indignantly at that but Roman continued on, "You were in bad form up there. You know that those three handle most of the magical jobs in this city. They're pretty much our bread and butter lately… if we ate that shit."
Dean decided enough was enough. If this was his dream, he could change it. He wanted it to be about wrestling and so, fucking dammit it was going to be about wrestling. "I was thinking about wrestling while we were up there… you know, the WWE? Where we work?"
Seth barked out a laugh and slapped him on the back. "I like how you call it wrestling. WWE, huh? I haven't thought of that place in ages." He shot a fond look over at Roman and said, "You reckon the Wolfssegen World Exclusivo misses us?"
Dean stopped walking and looked at the other two. "The fucking what?"
"Dude, stop it," Roman said with an annoyed huff. "You know we used to work for them… you just brought it up. Why are you acting so weird today? You drink a potion? Oh fuck, did you get into one of Sasha's potions last night? Is that what this is?"
"Sasha?" Dean asked, more confused than ever.
"Ugh, this is getting annoying. Dean fucking snap out of it and come on. We've got work to do. We've got a decent – non-troll – job, and the potential for a fucking unicorn! Let's head back to the office and start a plan," Seth snarled.
"Ookaaay," Dean said warily, then he had a thought. His wallet, he'd just look there. His license had his address in Nevada and he had all his wrestling ID in it and shit. Yeah, that would show these guys.
Reaching in his back pocket he pulled out his wallet and his driver's license. His eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw his face, fully sneering at the camera – OK, that part wasn't too weird. But the rest, well, that fucking blew his mind.