Chapter 7

Sam cursed whatever techno gadget Jodi had that let her see in the dark. The girl was quick and nimble to begin with, and since she was able to navigate better than either of them at the moment, she quickly pulled ahead. If it wasn't for the occasional bright flashes of a pale undershirt they would have lost her in the night as soon as she ran off.

They chased Jodi to a small clearing in the woods where Dean slid to a sudden stop. Sam crashed bodily into his brother, Dean's hands instantly clutching at his jacket to keep him upright. He brushed off Dean's hands and was about to ask why they stopped when Sam caught a glimmer of moonlight reflecting off something metallic that clearly didn't belong in the woods. His eyes tracked in the dark, trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

And then he stared.

The Winchesters had a long history with things that went bump in the night. Sam and Dean had been close and personal with ghosts, shapeshifters and all sorts of monsters from strange, to the grotesque. Mythology and lore had been drilled into them from a young age, and were taught to use weapons as soon as they were big enough not to fall over when using them.

All of that knowledge, all those years of lessons and research, were suddenly useless.

Because Sam had no clue what he was looking at.

In the clearing, a couple of trees had been toppeled and crushed under the sheer weight of the still figure sprawled atop of them. It was large and humanoid, with arms and legs, and covered top to bottom in sharp edges. The distinct nose of a new Ford mustang made up the bulk of the chest, and Sam was pretty sure those were tires where the wrists should be.

Holy shit.

And there was Jodi, scampering and climbing across the damn thing like it was her personal jungle gym until she was standing on one of it's arms. She grabbed at the plains of it's face and started yelling, all that composure and relative calm she'd shown in the face of their kidnapping long gone. Her voice was near hysteric and sounded on the verge of tears. "'Cade! 'Cade, you need to wake up. You're not allowed to do this to me, you hear me?" A small bang as she slammed on something with her fist. "Barricade!"

Two glowing red lights snapped on, immediately followed by it's whole torso lurching forward.

Jodi yelped and tumbled backwards, only to be caught instantly by the palm of a sharply clawed hand. Those red lights, eyes Sam realized, studied her intensely as it moved to sit up properly. Sam watched in facination as Jodi stepped with the movement, migrating easily down to a leg. The move easy and intuitive, and spoke of familiarity.

Oh, holy shit.

"I warn you, I have a broad definition of 'strange'."

"That's classified."

She really wasn't kidding, Sam thought, a bit dazed.

Sam's head was was still reeling, from the lingering drugs in his system and from his injuries. His skin was still buzzing from the ebbing adrenalin high left over from the confrontation with the ghost and his two living children. All of that left him ill-equiped to process the interaction taking place before his eyes. The whole thing was surreal and he wasn't 100% sure that he wasn't hallucinating.

"Are you injured?" The giant metal-man's voice was deep, the low ideling rumble of a powerful engine, but mildly tinny. Words filtered through some sort of computer system.

"Am I injured?" Jodi repeated sharply. She made some aborted gestures with her hands, fingers clenching as if she wanted to strangle something. "I'm not the one who passed out after having his holoform sent on the fritz! What the hell happened?"

"A power surge overloaded my systems. I've never encountered anything like that before." The voice deepened further into a snarl. "The fact I was not briefed on such a life form is incredibly-"

"It wasn't," Sam found himself saying, the words pouring right out without his permission as soon as his mind put the pieces together.

All eyes fell on him, including Dean's. His brother's wide-eyed expression clearly stated what he thought about his brother's little outburst.

Jodi and whatever the hell that was were staring like they just realized they were both standing there.

Sam swallowed around the rock suddenly lodged in his throat and made himself elaborate. "The thing that attacked Jodi and I and made your . . . holoform disappear wasn't alive. It was a spirit."

"You mean that creepy old guy was a ghost?"

Sam couldn't understand Jodi's skeptical tone whene she was just yelling at a giant robot. Absurd didn't begin to cover it.

Jodi side-stepped and did a controlled slide down a metal leg. Her face contorted into a grimace when she landed, but it disappeared quickly. There was a whisper-faint hiss of hydraulics and the screech of metal scraping against wood and rocks as Jodi's friend stood.

Dean crowded back into Sam's space until the two of them were shoulder to shoulder. Dean hissed at him under his breath. "You just had to open your damn mouth, didn't you."

Tremors shook the ground as the metal giant advanced, radiating aggressiveness.

The brother's braced themselves unsure if there was any point in running.

And then Jodi was there, standing between them, whip thin and barely coming up past Sam's ribcage. She had planted herself firmly, protectively, with her back to them, and leveled a finger at the giant.

Sam couldn't help but think that the sight was a bit ridiculous.

"Leave them alone." Her tone was stone.

The giant pointed back and Sam didn't take his eyes off the tip, it's razor sharp edge gleaming in the moonlight. "Both of them have profiles with the FBI so thick it's almost impressive. The older one was legally declared deceased after a butchering spree. Plus he shot me after I found blood outside the motel room."

Sam shot his brother a look and mouthed "really?". Dean shrugged.

"Sam tried to keep me from being taken from the motel, and got a brick to the head for his trouble."

There was dead silence as they stared eachother down, and it was then that Sam saw the dark spot blooming on the back of the girl's shirt.

"Jodi, your shoulder."

An arm stretched up and over, gingerly skimming fingers over the dark spot. She looked down at her bloodied fingers and huffed. Her gaze lifted and she seemed to deflate. "'Cade, I'm sorry I didn't stay in the motel room. I know I didn't listen but can we talk about it somewhere else? We just saw a lot of crap and we're all banged up, and I'm cold. Please?"

Those glowing eyes bored into Sam, making him squirm, before returning to Jodi. "Fine. All of you follow me. You threaten my charge in any way and you won't make it to see a medic."

He stomped off and Jodi followed in his wake. She paused to look at the brothers. "You guys coming or what?"

Sam turned to his brother. Eyes wide, Dean gave a small shake of his head.

In his peripheral, Jodi shifted impatiently. If she was going to lead them to their death, she had plenty of opportunity to do so.

So he followed.

"Aw, c'mon Sammy! Sam? Dude, wait up!"

Author's Note: A short update for you all to show that 'The Gift' isn't completely taking over my life, plus I think you guys have waited long enough. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to show how Jodi and Barricade's interactions look to an outsider, and it was a lot of fun playing with his perspective. Next up, some 'Cade POV!

Also! Guess who got a Gold Pass to her first SPN Convention! (Dances with Happiness)

As always, thank you all for the love and the comments, and a shout out to all my silent readers as well! I appreciate you all! Happy reading everybody! -Shadow