Nightshifter Part 1
The bank was surrounded by police cars, press, and an ambulance, through a handheld news camera. The tags 'BANK ROBBERY – Milwaukee, WI' appeared in the lower left corner and 'RECORDED EARLIER' in the upper right.
A female reporter spoke off camera. "We're here downtown in front of the City Bank of Milwaukee, and though a short exchange of weapons fire occurred just minutes ago, police and SWAT teams maintain position as we enter the third hour of this intense standoff." She said. The camera panned over to the reporter. "Authorities estimate as many as ten hostages are being held inside the bank; no work as yet on the identity of the suspects, or, uh," there was a commotion behind her. "Something's happening. I think they're opening the door. Roger, are you getting this?"
Police and others nearby shouted over each other as the camera refocused to the front of the bank.
"No, don't shoot, don't shoot!" a man's voice pleaded.
"No, no, no, don't even think about it!" Dean's voice replied. "Get the hell back!"
Two men exited the bank: a terrified security guard, and Dean, who pushed the other man in front of him and held a rifle.
~/~\~
An attractive young woman, Frannie came out of the back with some papers in her hand. Dean turned to face her as she spoke. He was dressed in a dark suit.
"So what's it like, being an FBI guy?" she asked.
"Well, it's dangerous." He replied. "And the secrets we've gotta keep, oh. God, the secrets. But mostly it's, it's lonely."
"I so know what you mean." She nodded.
"Yeah." He murmured.
~/~\~
Elsewhere in the store; Sam, also dressed in a suit with slicked hair, and Angela, who was dressed in a white blouse, a black blazer, a pencil skirt, and heels were interrogating the manager, a middle aged man.
"Helena was our head buyer." The manager said. "She… she was family, you know? She said it herself, every year at the Christmas party. She said we were the only family she had."
"So there were never any signs that'd she'd do something like this?" Angela asked.
"No. Still can't believe it." He replied. "That night, Helena came back to the store after closing. Cleaned out all the display cases, and the safe. Edgar, out night watchman, he caught her in the act. He didn't know what to do, he'd known her for years. He called me at home."
"And that's when she took his gun?" Sam asked.
"She shot him in the face." He replied. "I heard him die. Over the phone."
"Any idea what her motive could have been?" Angela asked curiously.
"What motive?" the manager asked. "It makes no sense. Why steal all those diamonds, all that jewelry, and then what? Just dump it somewhere, just hide it, and go home, and,"
~/~\~
"She killed herself?" Dean asked Frannie.
"Well, the cops said. She dropped the hair dryer in the bath and fried herself." She nodded. "They should know, right?"
"Yeah. Well, thank you, Frannie, I think that's all I need." Dean nodded.
"Really?" she asked. "Because I've got more. You know," she looked around slyly. "If you wanted to interview me sometime. In private?"
Dean eyed Sam guiltily across the room. "Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. You're a true patriot, you really are." He said. "Why don't you write your number down there for me?"
~/~\~
"So you never saw the security camera footage yourself, then?" Sam asked.
"No. The police, they took all the tapes, first thing."
"Yeah, of course they did." Dean said, approaching them. He waved Frannie's number at Sam and Angela.
Angela just rolled her eyes.
~/~\~
Leaving the jewelry store, Sam, Dean, and Angela drove down a dark street and pulled up in front of a small house.
"Five, this is it." Angela said.
"Friggin' cops." Dean muttered.
"They're just doing their job, Dean." Sam said.
"No, they're doing our job, only they don't know it, so they suck at it." Dean muttered. "Talk to us about this bank."
The three got out of the car and approached the house.
"Uh, Milwaukee National Trust, it was hit about a month ago." Sam replied.
"Same M.O. as the jewelry store?" Angela asked.
"Yep, inside job, longtime employee, the never-in-a-million-years type." Sam said. "Dude robs a bank, then goes home and supposedly commits suicide."
"The guy Resnick, he was the security guard on duty?" Dean raised a brow.
"Yeah. He was actually beaten unconscious by the teller who heisted the place." Sam nodded.
"God." Dean muttered.
"Yeah." Sam replied.
Angela knocked on the screen door. "Mr. Resnick? Ronald Resnick?" she asked.
A bright floodlight turned on, and they shielded their eyes.
"Son of a b- Dean started.
A youngish man appeared in the doorway warily.
"FBI, Mr. Resnick." Sam said.
"Let me see the badge." He replied.
The trio pulled out their badges and slapped them against the screen door in unison.
Ronald squinted at them carefully. "I already gave my statement to the police."
"Yeah, listen Ronald, uh… just some things about your statement we wanted to get some clarification on." Dean replied.
"You read it?" Ronald asked, wide eyed.
"Sure did." Dean nodded.
"And you want to listen to what I've got to say?" he asked.
"Well, that's why we're here." Dean said.
"Well. Come on in." Ronald grinned. He opened the door and led them through a narrow hallway to a cluttered room; the walls were covered with alien photos and Conspiracy Theory paraphernalia. "None of the cops ever called me back. Not after I told them what was really going on." He said. "Uh, they all thought I was crazy. First off, Juan Morales never robbed the Milwaukee National Trust, okay? That I guarantee. See, we and Juan were friends, he used to come back to the bank on my night shifts and we'd play cards."
"So you let him into the bank that night, after hours." Angela said.
"The thing I let into the bank… wasn't Juan. I mean, it had his face, but it wasn't his face." He tried to explain. "Uh, every detail was perfect, but too perfect, like, you know, like if a doll maker made it, like I was talking to a big Juan-doll."
"A Juan-doll?" Sam raised a brow.
"Look. This wasn't the only time this happened. Okay?" Ronald replied. He handed Sam a file folder. "There was this jewelry store, too. And the cops, and you guys, you just won't see it!" he added.
Sam looked at the folder; it looked like a hunter's profile of the jewelry case.
"Both crimes were pulled by the same thing." Ronald said.
"What's that, Mr. Resnick?" Angela asked.
Ronald picked up a copy of a magazine called 'Fortean Times' and held it to his chest. The headline at the bottom read 'BIRTH OF THE CYBERMEN'. "Chinese have been working on 'em for years. And the Russians before that. Part men, part machine. Like the Terminator. But the kind that can change itself, make itself look like other people."
Dean smirked. "Like the one from T2." He replied.
"Exactly!" Ronald exclaimed. "See, so not just a robot, more of a, uh, a Mandroid."
"A Mandroid?" Sam and Angela asked.
"And what makes you so sure about this, Ronald?" Dean asked.
Ronald held up a finger, smiling widely. He inserted a VHS tape labeled 'M.N.T. Camera 4 – Juan' into a player. "See, I made copied of all the security tapes. I knew once the cops got them they'd be buried. Here" He said. He fast-forwarded the tape. "Now watch. Watch. Watch him, watch, watch! See, look! There it is!" he exclaimed. He paused the tape. "You see? He's got the laser eyes."
On the tape it showed Juan, facing the camera, with a light-flare in his eyes. The three hunters shared a knowing look.
"Cops said it was some kind of reflected light." Ronald said. "Some kind of 'camera flare'. Okay? Ain't no damn camera flare. They say I'm a post-trauma case. So what? Bank goes and fires me, it don't matter!"
Sam and Angela eyed him cautiously as he continued his rant.
"The mandroid is, is still out there." Ronald said. "The law won't hunt this thing down, I'll do it myself. You see, this thing, it, it kills the real person, makes it look like a suicide, then it sorta like, morphs into that person. Cases the job for a while until it knows the take is fat, and then it finds its opening. Now, these robberies, they're, they're grouped together." He explained. He gestured to a map on the wall. "So I figure the mandroid is holed up somewhere in the middle, underground, maybe. I don't know, maybe that's where it recharges its, uh, mandroid batteries."
Dean nodded, apparently impressed. Sam and Angela just stared at Ronald intently, all three of them stood.
"Okay." Angela muttered. She looked at Ronald. "I want you to listen very carefully." She stated. "Because I'm about to tell you the God's honest truth about all of this." She added. "There's no such thing as Mandroids. There's nothing evil or inhuman going on out there." She added. "Just people. Nothing else, you understand?"
Dean kept a straight face, but was clearly startled. He started to say something.
"The laser eyes." Ronald replied, desperately.
"Just a camera flare, Mr. Resnick." Sam said. "Look, I know you don't want to believe this. But your friend Juan robbed the bank and that's it."
Ronald glared. "Get out of my house! Now!"
"Sure." Sam said calmly. "First things first."
Dean just frowned at Sam and Angela in confusion.
~/~\~
Sam, Dean, and Angela returned to their motel room, which had the obligatory tacky wall decorations. They were dressed in ordinary clothing again.
"Man, that has got to be the kicker, straight up." Dean said. "I mean, you two tell that poor son of a bitch that, what did you say, remand the tapes that he copied? Classified evidence of an ongoing investigation?"
Angela sat down next to Sam to watch the tape. "What are you, pissed at us or something?" she asked.
"No, I just think it's a little creepy how good of Feds you two are." Dean shrugged. "I mean, come on, we could have at least thrown the guy a bone. He did some pretty good legwork here."
"Mandroid?" Sam raised a brow.
"Except for the mandroid part." Dean agreed. "I liked him. He's not that different from us, people think we're crazy."
"It's different Dean." Angela said.
"Yeah, she's right." Sam nodded. "He's not a hunter, Dean. He's just a guy who stumbled onto something real. If he were to go up against this thing he'd get torn apart. Better to stay in the dark, and stay alive."
"Yeah, I guess." Dean muttered. Dean placed tracing paper over the map and started marking it with a red pen as Sam paused the tape on the flaring eyes.
"Shape shifter." Sam muttered. "Just like back in St. Louis. Same retinal reaction to video."
"Eyes flare at the camera. I hate those friggin' things." Dean mumbled.
"You think I don't?" Sam asked.
"Yeah, well, one didn't turn into you and frame you for murder." Dean said.
"Well, look. If this shifter's anything like the one we killed in Missouri," Sam started.
"Then Ronald was right. All right, they like to layer up underground, preferably the sewer. And all the robberies have been connected so far, right?"
"Yeah." Angela and Sam replied.
"With the, uh, sewer main layout." Dean said. "There's one more bank lined up on that same sewer main."
~/~\~
A security guard led Sam, Dean, and Angela, now uniformed as technicians, down the main hall.
"Well, we haven't had any flags go up on our system yet." The guard said.
"No, this is a glitch in the overall grid, we just want to make sure the branch monitors are kosher." Dean replied.
"Well, better to be safe than sorry, I guess." The guard said.
"That's the plan." Dean nodded.
~/~\~
The guard opened the door to an observation room with several TV screens showing security footage.
"All righty. You three need anything else?" the guard asked.
"Oh, no, no, we'll be, uh, we'll be in and out before you know it, just a routine check." Angela replied.
"Okie-dokie." The guard nodded, leaving.
"I like him." Dean said. "He says 'okie-dokie'."
"What if he's the shifter?" Sam asked.
"Well, then we follow him home, put a silver bullet through his chest plate." Dean shrugged.
They sat down to watch the screens.
"Okay." Dean nodded. "Well, you got any popcorn?"
Angela just smacked his arm lightly, signaling for him to pay attention. He stuck his tongue out at her in response.
~/~\~
Later, they were still reviewing the screens; the guard was in one, and his eyes were normal.
"Well, it looks like mister okie-dokie is… okie-dokie." Dean said.
"Maybe we jumped a bullet on this, guys. I mean, we don't even know if it's here." Angela said.
"Mm-hmm." Dean replied, distracted.
"Maybe we should just go back to the sewers and... and…" she continued. She saw Dean zooming one of the cameras in on the ass of an attractive young woman who was behind over. She smacked him again. "Focus."
"Dean, we're supposed to be looking for eyes." Sam said, exasperated.
"I'm getting there." Dean said.
"Oh yeah?" Sam asked.
"Wait a minute." Dean replied. On another screen, a middle-aged man turned towards the camera; his eyes flared. "Hello, freak."
"Got him." Sam muttered.
Sam headed for the door, but Dean and Angela stayed behind, looking at another screen.
"Sam!" Angela said.
"What?" he asked.
They watched as Ronald scurried up to the outer door with a chain and a padlock, chaining the door shut.
"Hello Ronald." Dean muttered.
~/~\~
The trio walked down a hallway towards the main hall; a few panicked people brushed past them, running the other way.
"And you said we shouldn't bring guns." Dean muttered.
"Angela and I didn't know this was gonna happen, Dean." Sam replied.
"Just let me do the talking. I don't think he likes you two very much, Agent Johnson and Agent Dyer."
~/~\~
Ronald held up a key. "Now, there's only one way in or out of here, and I chained it up." He said. "So nobody's leaving, do you understand?"
"Hey, buddy." Dean said as he entered. "Calm down. Just calm down,"
"What the- You! Get on the floor, now." Ronald said.
"Okay, we're doing that." Dean nodded. "Just don't shoot anybody, especially us."
"I knew it." Ronald muttered. "As soon as you three left. You ain't FBI. Who are you? Who are you working for, huh? The men in black? You working for the mandroid?"
"We're not working for the mandroid!" Angela and Sam exclaimed.
"You two, shut up!" Ronald yelled. "I ain't talking to you two, I don't like either of you."
Dean shot them an 'I told you so' look.
"Fair enough." Angela nodded.
Ronald looked at one of the hostages. "Get on 'em. Frisk them down, make sure they got no weapons on them. Go!"
A middle-aged black man went over to the three and frisked them; he found a knife in Dean's boot.
"Now what have he here?" Ronald asked.
"I'm not just gonna walk in here naked!" Dean defended when Sam and Angela sent him a look.
Ronald took the knife. "Get back there." He said. He dropped the knife into the deposit box. It clattered.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Dean winced. "We know you don't want to hurt anybody. That's exactly what's gonna happen if you keep waving that cannon around, and why don't you let these people go?"
"No!" Ronald replied. "I already told you. If nobody's gonna stop this thing, then I've got to do it myself."
"Hey, we believe you!" Dean replied. "That's why we're here."
"You don't believe me. Nobody believes me! How could they?"
"Come here." Dean said.
"What?" Ronald asked. "No."
"You're holding the gun, boss, you're calling the shots." Dean replied. "I just want to tell you something. Come here."
Ronald approached cautiously, and leaned in.
"It's the bank manager." Dean whispered.
"What?" Ronald frowned.
"Why do you think we've got these getups, huh? We've been monitoring the cameras in the back. We saw the bank manager, we saw his eyes."
"His laser eyes?"
"Yes. No. No! No, look, we're running out of time, okay? We've got to find him before he changes into someone else."
"Like I'm gonna listen to you. You're a damn liar."
Dean stood cautiously, hands out.
"I'll shoot you!" Ronald yelled. "Get down!"
"Take me." Dean said. "Okay? Take me with you, take me as a hostage. But we've gotta act fast. Because the longer we just sit here the more time he has to change." Dean added. He paused. "Look at me, man. I believe you. You're not crazy. There really is something inside this bank."
"All right. You come with me." Ronald whispered. "But everyone else gets in the vault!"
~/~\~
Ronald ushered the hostages, including Sam and Angela, into the vault. "Come on, move, move! Move, move!" he yelled. "And you lock it up." He looked at Dean.
"It's okay, everyone. Just stay cool." Dean said as he started shutting the door. He shrugged at Sam and Angela in apology, then slammed the door shut.
~/~\~
A young redhead, Sherry stared after Dean. "Who is that man?"
"He's my brother." Sam replied, worry in his voice.
"He is so brave." Sherry smiled dreamily.
Sam nearly rolled his eyes and Angela just shook her head, sighing.
~/~\~
Ronald preceded Dean into a series of offices; Dean had removed his uniform jacket to reveal a flannel shirt.
"Check behind the desk." Dean said.
As Dean checked a back room, Ronald fell, yelling. Dean came back out, eyes darting. Ronald was lying on the floor next to a slimy pile of skin.
He screamed and stood, pointing his gun at it. "What the hell is that?"
Dean turned a lamp on the pile. "Oh great." He muttered. "When it changes form it sheds its old skin. So now it could be anybody again." He said after a pause.
Ronald picked up a piece of skin, smelling it. "It's so weird. Its robot skin is so lifelike."
"Okay, let's get something straight. It's not a mandroid. It's a shape shifter." Dean said.
"Shape shifter?" Ronald asked.
"Yeah." Dean nodded. "I mean, it's human, more or less. Has human drives, and in this case it's money. But it generates its own skin, it can shape it to match someone else's features, you know, taller, shorter, male,"
"So it, it kills someone and then takes their place?" Ronald asked.
"Kills them, doesn't kill them, I don't think it really matters."
"What are you doing?"
Dean picked up a letter opener from the desk and examined it. He sighed in relief. "Nice." He muttered. "You remember the old werewolf stories? Pretty much came from these guys. Silver's the only thing I've seen that hurts them." He said. "Come on, Ronald." He said, walking out.
Ronald grimaced at the skin, and followed Dean, grinning.
~/~\~
Ronald was following Dean down a wider hallway, still chuckling.
"What are you, nuts?" Dean asked.
"That's just it. I'm not nuts. I mean, I was so scared I was losing my marbles. But this is real! I mean, I, I was right! Except for the mandroid thing. Thank you."
"Yeah, don't mention it." Dean replied.
Suddenly, the power cut out; a few emergency lights clicked on.
"Dammit! No, no, no, no, no." Dean said.
"What? What is it?"
"They cut the power. Probably their way of saying hi."
"Who?" Ronald asked.
"The cops."
"The cops?!"
Dean stopped. "Well, you weren't exactly a smooth criminal about this, Ron. I mean, you didn't even secure the security guard. He probably called them."
"Well, I, I didn't think to-"
"All right, hang on, hang on, let's just take a breath here for a second, all right? They, they've probably got us surrounded. They've cut the power to the cameras so there's no way of telling who the shape shifter is." Dean replied. He took a breath. "It's not looking good, Ron."
Ronald flinched at a noise and brought the rifle up.
"Did you hear that?" Dean asked.
A/N: So this chapter and the next one were difficult to write. I just wasn't as into them I guess, I dunno. Anyway, I don't have too much to say on this one. But in the next one Angie does give a little mini speech type thing, but I'm not saying on what. Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! :)
Don't forget to drop a review before you go ;) Love you guys.
~Emily