Still Alive

Dean didn't look back as he easily leapt onto a dumpster and jumped from there onto a fire escape using his momentum to swing his body up and over the railing. From there he got to the rooftop quickly enough and then proceeded to run along the rooftops of the row houses going southeast. Today he would take the scenic route back to base.

He knew he was being unfair towards Seth, but he really couldn't handle having a new guy join the Merry Men right now. However, he also couldn't outright reject him when he had declared with such passion why he wanted to join. So, in Dean's mind, he settled on a compromise. He would take Seth through what most of his men deemed the 'impossible route' back to camp. His men called it that because so far only Dean could actually do it. The route was fraught with dangerous jumps and obstacles and only Dean was crazy enough to attempt and succeed at them.

Dean didn't glance back but he could hear Seth's heavy breathing as he still managed to keep up. Dean was already impressed. He hadn't expected him to last this long but he knew that the jump coming up which he termed in his mind, "Satan's Cavity" would stop Seth right in his tracks.

Picking up speed, Dean didn't hesitate as he launched himself from the top of an eight storied building across a gap of about twelve feet and landed about fifteen feet down on the side of a slightly smaller building by grasping the drain pipe of said building. Dean felt the rush of adrenaline like he always did after he accomplished a pretty impressive maneuver and shimmed a few feet up the drainpipe before pulling himself up onto the roof.

Dean now looked back expecting to see a dejected kid staring at the gap and thinking it impossible. However, Dean was surprised to see that Seth was already flying through the air and instead of grasping the drainpipe he had gotten a few more feet than Dean and was able to land on the roof going into an immediate roll so that he was able to keep his momentum going. Seth sprung to his feet and looked at Dean curiously, with a slight grin on his face from Dean's shocked expression, "Why are we stopping? Are we here?"

Dean frowned and shook his head. He needed to kick this up a notch. No more playing nice. "No," he shot back not liking Seth's insinuation that it had been easy, "just giving you a chance to catch up, but don't expect it to happen again," he said as he began to run at full speed along the roof not stopping or even slowing down when the roof turned into a pipe that was only six inches wide that connected the previous building they had been on to the one they needed to get to.

After about a hundred yards or so, the pipe connected to the brick wall of an abandoned steel factory and the only way to go was ten feet straight up to the glass ceiling. Dean ran up the wall with practiced ease and began to bound across the glass roof, careful to avoid stepping on parts of the glass where it was either cracked or brittle from neglect. To his chagrin, Dean still couldn't lose Seth who was hot on his heels.

When Dean reached the end of the glass roof, not missing a beat, he reached down to grasp the black cable whose end was nailed down to the top of the roof. With a graceful leap off the roof, the cable held firmly in one hand, Dean executed a perfect 180-degree turn and repelled quickly down the side of the factory.

When Dean was about 20 feet from the ground, instead of continuing to repel all the way, he pushed hard off the wall and twisted in midair missing the barbed wire 10-foot high fence that separated the abandoned factory from an old car junkyard, which seemed to stretch for miles, by inches. Dean landed hard on the hood of a rusty Chevy, his teeth rattling in his head as his body absorbed the shock and he rolled quite ungracefully to the ground.

Breathing hard, Dean leaned against the broken down Chevy and used it to pull himself to his feet. It was the first time Dean had tried that maneuver and his aching body was screaming in protest at his every move. Raising his eyes, Dean looked to see how Seth was faring. Seth was still hanging onto the cable, at around the same point that Dean was when he went for the jump, looking like he was stuck. Dean grinned to himself. He didn't expect Seth to even attempt that move he had just pulled off. It was practically suicidal…

Dean's jaw almost dropped in shock. Seth got a massive push off of the wall and soared up into the air with his arms outstretched. Blindly he performed a beautiful back flip, cleared the fence by at least a foot and then grasped a metal railing that was stuck solidly between two high columns of crushed, junk cars. Swinging his body several times around the bar like a gymnast, Seth landed gently on the ground.

That does it! Dean thought in his head as he ran into the junkyard determined to lose Seth. Dean tried every trick in the book, running like Cena's goons were chasing him. Thing is, Dean thought to himself, Cena's henchmen never gave me this much trouble. Dean was so concentrated on getting away from Seth that he forgot to give the signal when approaching the back door of the Merry Men's hideout.

While his men knew him, they didn't know Seth and since Dean had failed to give the 'all clear' signal to his men. To them it looked like their leader was being chased by an unknown threat. It wasn't until Dean heard a rush of feet and a yelp behind him that he stopped and realized his mistake.

His men had Seth trapped in a big net and were roughing him up a bit. Dean sighed. He had failed. Seth had indeed successfully kept up with him all the way to the Merry Men's hideout. And although he really didn't have time to train a newbie, Dean Ambrose was always a man of his word. Not to mention, he was also significantly impressed by Seth's ninja-like abilities.

"STOP!" Dean shouted at Finn, Sami and Adrian who instantly stopped what they were doing and looked at Dean as if he had grown another head.

"But…" began Sami.

"He's a potential newbie," Dean quickly interrupted Sami before he could give away his identity to Seth, "thought Ambrose might want to take a look at him."

The three men caught on to what Dean wanted and nodded as they got the net off of Seth and yanked him to his feet.

"Don't worry," said Dean to Seth as his men bound his hands behind his back and blindfolded his eyes, "this is standard procedure for all newcomers. You'll stay in one of our holding cells until the boss decides what to do with you."

"When will I see Dean Ambrose?" asked Seth as he was being led away by Sami and Finn to the holding area.

"Hard to say for sure," replied Dean, "Dean Ambrose is nothing if not an unpredictable man."

"Who's that?" asked Little Rome nodding in Seth's direction as he was taken down in the direct opposite tunnel that Dean was heading towards. Dean looked over his shoulder and shrugged as he continued down the tunnel towards the Meeting Room forcing Little Rome to fall into step besides him.

"No one," said Dean nonchalantly, he knew Ro would freak out when he learned that Dean had taken on a newbie. Roman thought that Dean already did way too much and was always lecturing him about the importance of taking care of himself, getting sleep and all other kinds of nonsense, in Dean's humble opinion.

"If he's no one, why are we bothering putting him in a holding cell?" questioned Little Rome as he kept up with Dean's fast pace.

Dean breathed a heavy sigh, "He's just…a potential newbie," Dean finished muttering under his breath hoping that Roman wouldn't understand him and just let the matter drop. Unfortunately for Dean, Little Rome had impeccable hearing.

"A NEWBIE!" Little Rome roared, grabbing Dean's shoulder forcing him to stop and face his now angry friend. "Dean, you can't be serious. We have no time…"

"Stop it," hissed Dean authoritatively as he noticed a couple of his men coming towards them in the tunnel. "In there," he stated gesturing with his head towards a small room off the main tunnel that they usually used for interrogating prisoners. Little Rome agreed with a stiff nod and they both headed in there.

Dean had the door barely closed when Ro continued his rant, "No time for anything remotely like that. How are we going to train him? We've got an entire city to save! We've got no fucking time for this shit!" Roman exclaimed as he pounded his hand on the small table in the room for emphasis.

"He could help us. He's got mad skills, Ro. He might be even better than me," said Dean trying to remain calm as he explained himself to his best friend.

"I don't care how good he is," burst out Little Rome, "there are lives at stake here!"

"You think I don't fucking know that!" yelled Dean getting in Little Rome's face. "You think I don't fucking know! What do you think I'm fucking doing all the fucking day?!"

"Working too fucking hard!" shouted Little Rome back at Dean as he shoved Dean away from him a bit. "We need you, man. We need you at your best and how do you plan on doing that while you are busy with a newbie?"

"I don't know, okay," said Dean defensively, "but maybe we could use him. I stopped some of Cena's goons from pumping his veins full of that exact poison we are trying to save the city from. Maybe he could tell us something that we don't know?"

"It's too big of a risk!" declared Little Rome shaking his head. "First Randy brings in someone new and now you!"

"Wait…what?" asked Dean giving Ro a puzzled look, "I didn't okay that."

"Well he said that you would understand and that we needed him for our next attack," said Little Rome gesturing helplessly, "they're talking in the kitchen as we speak. Randy is getting him something to eat."

"Since when do we let visitors just walk around without letting me approve it first," growled Dean as he furiously pulled the door open and walked purposefully towards the kitchens.

"Since now," said Little Rome under his breath as he ran frustrated fingers through his hair and followed his crazy leader out of the room.

Sheriff Kane was out of breath as he walked into Mayor Cena's office and gulped as the mayor's eyes were on him as soon as he opened the door.

"Status report," demanded the mayor as Sheriff Kane walked a little further into the room.

"Yes…um yes," said the sheriff fumbling over his words, "well, it appears that all went according to plan. The kid seems to be in."

"The key word in that sentence that troubles me," said Mayor Cena slowly as he got up from his desk and straightened his suit jacket, "is 'seems'. Do you actually know anything, sheriff? Do you have anything of substance to actually report to me? Or are you truly useless?"

"Yes! I mean no," said Sheriff Kane hurriedly, "I mean it's too early to say exactly. Until the boy checks in, which won't be for a few days, we won't know much."

"I don't like that, sheriff," snarled the mayor as he stepped threateningly towards the sheriff, "I don't like that at all."

"Well you've waited this long to catch Dean Ambrose," said the sheriff desperate to deflect the mayor's anger off of him, "what's another couple of days?"

"It better be just a few days," snapped Mayor Cena, "I want Dean Ambrose delivered to me on a silver platter before the benefit."

"That doesn't give us much time," the sheriff protested.

"Do it!" shouted the mayor back at the sheriff, "or otherwise I'll find myself someone who can get it done. I'm starting to doubt whether you're the right man for the job, sheriff."

"I am."

"Then prove it," sneered the mayor as he turned back to his desk and waved him away dismissively, "I'm done with you. Get out of my sight."

The mayor rubbed a hand over his eyes as he blew out a breath of frustration. That little shit, Dean Ambrose had plagued him for so long that he couldn't wait to get his hands on him. He would not only hurt Ambrose but also humiliate him just as he had done to him for the past five fucking years.

As you can see, I've decided to continue with this story.

I would love it if you would tell me how you felt about this chapter. Love, hate, or not sure let me know :)