While Sam was sitting there in the lecture hall stunned over winning his bet with Dean, Dean was marching down the alley shaking his head in amazement over the fact that he'd lost. John was walking after Dean reloading his guns and laughing. "How many times have I told you it isn't a good idea to bet against your brother?"
Dean threw John an aggrieved look. "How can you say that? Ok, so he's a brainiac. He's still Sammy. How can I not bet against him?" Dean ranted at his father as he fished in his pockets for more bullets.
"How about because he knows you're hopelessly outclassed, mech-boy?" The young black man who stepped out of the doorway to the Winchesters left was about the same age as Dean, who greeted him by knocking their fists together.
"Just cause he's a college boy now, don't mean that he'll ever be classier than me, Baldy." Dean said, referring to the man's shaved head. The grin on both young men's faces assured the people watching that this was a friend.
"So what brings you two to my town, as if I couldn't guess," Baldy said sarcastically. He fired a crossbow over Dean's shoulder. Dean didn't even turn to look.
"Heard you had a bit of a roach problem," Dean said back, checking out the building Baldy had stepped out of. "You got kids in there?" he asked suddenly serious.
"It's a shelter. They know what's goin down." Baldy returned Dean and John's stern look. "Nothing gets in, or out alive if it does."
John nodded. "Just make sure the dead stay dead and the living stay alive."
Baldy bowed his head to John in respect and the Winchesters moved on, leaving the young man guarding who knew how many women and children. There wasn't a sign saying it was a shelter, so there was no telling what kind of shelter it was, but from his actions it was clear that there was more than one person in there he felt was worth guarding with his life.
Kelly leaned over Sam's shoulders and asked, "Why did your dad say that about the living and the dead and who was that guy?"
"It's a common attitude among Hunters. Do your best to keep the innocent alive and kill anything dead that won't stay that way. It doesn't always work of course, you can't save everyone and there will always be a hunt you don't walk away from. That's why cremation is such a standard practice. You can always tell a Hunter by their final request being to be cremated in certain ways, the most common being salting the body before cremation." Sam looked at Jess, "It's important to us that we don't become what we hunt."
Jess could tell that it was important to Sam too. She nodded, knowing that she was making a promise to him that she would see that it was done for him if it was needed one day. Considering that his brother was limping and had several gashes in various places and his father had pulled some kind of spike out of his upper arm and also had cuts and bruises from who knows how many demons, it really wasn't such a strange thing to ask. If they didn't make it, she was the only one who could do that for him.
Back on the screen Dean and John were getting closer to the center of the carnage. Demons had torn their way through cars, telephone poles lay shattered on the streets, street signs had been used to impale people to buildings. Each time they passed a victim; John would stop and say last rites over them while Dean guarded his back.
They were beyond the first wave now. The demons were still coming, but there was a little breathing room. It wasn't being provided by the individual fighters they had encountered roaming the streets though. It was provided by the army of girls that had Dean transfixed.
"Now that is a beautiful sight."
"Get your mind back on your work Dean," Sam and John both said at the same time. John continued, "You know better than to get involved with a Slayer anyway. Just one would break you in half."
"Yeah, but what a way to go Dad," with a wide grin on his face Dean joined in the fight.
John followed, shaking his head and the camera barely picked up his voice as he muttered, "His libido will get him killed for sure." The camera man widened the angle of his shot as John and Dean almost disappeared into thick of the fighting.
Here and there others that they had run into could be seen. The blue demon girl was fighting side by side with a green demon wearing an outfit that would look right at home on a Los Vegas stage. The man with the scarred throat was fighting back to back with a tall brunet who was wielding two short swords and looking like she was having the time of her life. The vampire father was joined by another vampire, this one with bleached blond hair, while his son was joined by some of the teenaged girls that made up most of the army opposing the demons.
"I thought you said your brother knew better than to get involved with demonic girls," Jess said bewildered by Dean's attitude.
"He does. Those girls are human. Vampire Slayers are girls, usually around the age of fifteen or sixteen, who have been chosen to fight as Champions by the Powers That Be. They're the big leagues. They are the ones who have to save the world on a regular basis. Hunters like my family clean up the little stuff so they can concentrate on the big stuff like this." Sam wasn't really paying attention to Jessica or anyone else, something in the picture had caught his attention. He jumped out of his seat and ran up to the screen.
"It's almost over," he breathed into the silence his actions had caused. "Just hang on guys, just hang on." By that time the others in the lecture hall could see what had caused his reaction. One of the buildings was shaking and beginning to crumble. It was the Wolfram and Hart building.
