Sorry this is coming so late, I went away on a trip for two weeks and couldn't finish up this chapter before I left. Then I felt like crud when I came back, so sorry for being a lazy bum.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Supernatural, Van Helsing or the Ghost Rider franchises. I do however own an ugly plastic wall hanging that looks like a patchwork rocking horse from the 70's.Warning: If you haven't seen AHBL1-2 you'll probably want to skip the back half of this chapter. Also if the word 'emo', psychotic fan girls, fictional angels or Fabio offend you, you'll probably want to skip this chapter.
"So, do you have any other name besides Van Helsing? Or is your first name Van but everyone think you're so cool their just like 'Holy crap man, it's Van Helsing!'" Dean chattered to Van Helsing as they rode down a stretch of empty forest. Sam and Carl's conversation about inventions of the future and other smart person mumbo jumbo had lost his interest two minutes after it started. It had started when Carl made coffee, two hours ago.
"I've never gone by any other name." Van Helsing stated simply as he watched the woods around them.
"But Van Helsing is a last name; you must have had a first name at some point in time?" Dean shifted in the saddle trying to get off his blisters.
"I don't remember much of anything before the last couple years."
"Do you know why?"
"No." the answer was flat and emotionless.
"So what do you remember?" Dean probed lightly; the guy was like a cast iron safe, inside another safe and then more and more, a million layers of impenetrable armor.
"Horrible things, horrible battles." A small flicker of a half smile, some sort of inside joke?
"Against evil?"
"Human evil." Another number clicked into place and a guard came down, Dean slowly started to turn the knob again.
"How so?"
"Great armies, marching against one another, sometimes I can remember who they are, others I can't." 'Gotcha'
"Were you a soldier or on the sidelines?"
"The sidelines, usually"
"Maybe you took pictures for the army? You did have cameras in this time right?"
"Yes we do have cameras but no, I didn't take pictures." 'Fumble'
"So if you didn't take pictures and you can't always remember who was fighting, what were you doing at the battles?" Van Helsing seemed to turn the question over in his head for several seconds.
"It's not from the most reputable source, but I have been called Gabriel," Van Helsing said with a sigh as he twisted a ring that was on his finger. Dean sat for a second taken completely by surprise at the sudden change of direction but quickly decided to roll with it.
"Gabriel like what?" Dean asked curiously wondering why Van Helsing had just taken off his ring and shoved it into a saddle bag.
"Like the Archangel."
"You were named after an angel?" Dean laughed a little as he looked at Van Helsing's face; something about his eyes caught Dean by surprise and shot ice down into his very core. 'Not battles with guns and uniforms, battles with bronze swords and armor. Not like the Angel, is the Angel.' Dean broke contact first, heart pounding hard as he somehow realized exactly what Van Helsing was alluding to.
"That's, eh, kinda creepy," Dean choked out dryly taking only side glances at the darkly clad man beside him.
"I suppose you could call me Gabriel if you wanted to, seems how Van Helsing his too much of a mouth full for you," Van Helsing said with a small quirk of a smile. Dean took his chance, rushing back with his favorite defense.
"All right, Gabe," Dean smirked not looking at Van Helsing
"I said Gabriel not Gabe," Van Helsing said flatly as Dean fired his trick back into his face.
"It's too late, once he has you tagged there's no going back. I've been trying to make him stop calling me Sammy for years but there's no hope." Sam called up from where he and Carl were talking, he had apparently caught part of the conversation. Van Helsing turned to look at Dean who had kicked his horse to the lead and had started to loudly sing a song that seemed to make no sense. 'I hunt, Therefore I am, Harvest the land, Taking of the fallen lamb'. Dean Winchester was quickly climbing his list of strangest people he'd ever met, and probably ever would meet.
vSv
With the strict instructions not to stick his hand into the right inner pocket 'Gabriel' had lent his black duster to Sam. Dean could scrape by as a wealthy explorer with his leather jacket but Sam's hoodie and the screen tee underneath wouldn't make the cut. Everyone had quickly agreed that Ghost Rider with his flaming Hellcycle and Billy-club would not win over the locals.
Sam tugged fruitlessly on the sleeves of the heavy leather coat in an attempt to make them cover his wrists.
"Hey Sam," Dean hissed from his left as they walked the horses through town.
"What?" Sam muttered rolling his shoulders hoping to make the strange guard that covered them fit better.
"Just be thankful you don't have to wear his pants," Dean snorted causing Van Helsing to shoot a death glare over his shoulder at Dean. Sam had been amazed that Van Helsing had not killed Dean when he had made a crack about 'the greatest hunter of all time wearing emo pants'. Of course Van Helsing hadn't gotten the jab but the meaning had been clear enough.
"Dean, you're insulting possibly the only person that can help us and the only person that is helping us; you do want to see the Impala again don't you?" Sam scolded his brother as Van Helsing and Carl pulled up in front of a larger building that bore the sign 'General Store' with an ax and stalk of wheat crossed over a shirt underneath the lettering.
"Jonathan Webber is the owner of this shop, I'm sure the both of you can find something different to wear while Carl and I stock up on what we'll need," Van Helsing explained as he started tying his horses reins to a post in front of the shop.
There was a bell over the shop door that tinkled happily as they entered alerting the plump woman in back to their presence.
"John, your friends are here!" She called down a set of stairs in the back with a kind but slightly nagging sort of voice before turning back to the group, "My husband should be up in a bit," she said sweetly. A second later a tall bald man with the build of a blacksmith came lumbering up the basement stairs to great them.
"Ah, Carl, Van Helsing," John boomed giving the both of them powerful handshakes in turn, "You're a day early, I hope it was fair weather instead of foul."
"Mostly fair, our newest friends were mistaken for Warlocks and had a little run in with the towns' people over in Eddiesberg. We were hoping you could help us with that, anyway, this is Sam and Dean Winchester." Van Helsing explained introducing the brothers.
"Hunters I presume?" John asked shaking the brothers' hands
"Yeah, but we can double as a lawyer and a mechanic if you want us to." Dean joked happily.
"Can't say we have too much need for either of those around here, so what did you need my help with?"
"Our clothing is a little conspicuous and attention drawing, we were hoping you would have something we could wear instead," Sam explained unbuttoning Van Helsing's coat to reveal the dark brown hoodie underneath.
"Never seen nothing like that before." John mused, "You stuck the hand warmer right on it!"
"Um yeah, so you think you can help us?" Sam asked starting to feel uncomfortable at being inspected so closely. John snapped out of his close examination of the pocket.
"I'm sure Mika can help you find something while I help Van Helsing and Carl, MIKA!" John bellowed the last part causing Sam and Dean jump a little at the proximity of the noise.
"What?!" came a muffled shout from the floor above them.
"I have customers that I want you to help!" John shouted back.
"Coming," came a softer voice as its teenage owner came down the stairs, she smiled politely as she saw the people that filled the shop.
sVs
"Try this one on," Mika said as she tossed Sam a dark brown sweater looking thing. Meanwhile Dean was shuffling through several stacks of pants on a table in the corner growing more and more concerned at the lack of the loose fitting pants he was hoping to find. Sam had told him jeans were still a fledgling thing having been invented during the California gold rush, he hadn't said when the gold rush was but apparently most of Europe didn't have jeans.
"I don't think this will fit," Sam muttered holding up the sweater.
"It looks like it would fit your build," Mika retorted as she started looking for more shirts for the brothers.
"Oh you would be surprised, little Sammy packs a lot of muscle on that frame, you should have seen him fighting in the last town," Dean told her as he looked around the store "Hey, where do you change?" Mika stopped examining Sam and turned as disbelieving eye to Dean.
"Where do you think?" Dean's face dropped, he pointed finger towards his feet, Mika nodded. "Were you gonna try that shirt on or what?" Mika asked turning back to Sam. Sam waited patiently for Mica to turn her back but it soon became apparent that she wouldn't, she was quickly working her way onto both of their bad sides. Sam slowly slipped off Van Helsing's coat and tugged off his hoodie and double checked to see if Mika was still watching him, no such luck his tee shirt seemed to draw even more attention to him.
"What does that symbol mean?" Mika asked leaning against the counter, her former harshness was replaced with curiosity.
"Ghost Rider?" Sam asked pointing at his chest, Mika nodded. "Ghost Rider is a type of hunter that was cursed into hunting. Something big and bad came and tricked him into a deal and now he's cursed to be the devils bounty hunter and he uses that curse to hunt evil." Sam explained breaking down the iconic devils rider.
"Why do you wear it?" Mika asked softly. Sam paused for a second.
"Because that's kinda what happened to me." Van Helsing could hear the muffled voice coming through the floorboards over his head.
"As you can see I designed these arrows to work with your crossbow. They carry a combination of the cure and a fast acting sedative that should keep the wolf down long enough for the cure to take effect," John carried on adding another item of ammo to the growing list of things you could shoot a werewolf with to cure it. They had already been shown the solidified version that was shotgun rounds the more aggressive bullet version with a needle tip or the version that was made of soft metal that would split and spill the cure into the victims' veins. Van Helsing highly doubted that this would work, especially since the elephant gun they had been given would probably blast any foes head clean off its shoulders.
"Do you have anything that isn't just modified," Carl asked breaking John's long line of rambling. John turned giving Carl a hard stare.
"Friar, werewolves have been around for hundreds of years and no one's ever figured out how to actually fix one until you found that cure. Now I figure there are only so many ways to get this stuff into one of those beasties blood, so if you come up with a new one, be my guest," John growled before turning to finish his arms inventory.
Half an hour later Van Helsing and Carl started up the stairs from the Webber basement with their arms double loaded with enough weapons for the four of them. Not too many weapons had been added as Carl has stated but most had be upgraded to include silver or some sort of dispensary for the cure formula.
"Well that wasn't very helpful," Carl muttered shifting his bags around so he could see the steps in front of him. "I mean I could have come up with that."
"Stop whining Carl, it's not appealing," Van Helsing reprimanded as he reached the top of the stairs and turned to place his bags against the wall.
"I'm just saying," Carl continued to mutter as he followed suit.
"We didn't have the time to come up with any new weaponry, what Webber came up with will have to do unless you whip up something on the run." Van Helsing said forcefully as he turned to lean against the wall next to the packs. It looked as though Sam and Dean finding satisfactory nineteenth century clothes was proving harder than expected.Dean sat on a stool in the corner shoving on pair after pair of boots praying to find one that both fit and was comfortable. He had already reluctantly settled on a pair of black pants that despite his best efforts we almost skin tight. Mika seemed to be doing her best to sabotage their efforts to find shirts and kept giving them ones that were too small, Dean had given up momentarily and sat without. Sam had miraculously found a pair of brown pants that could hold his lengthy legs and a pair of high black boots to fit his feet. He was currently trying to deal with Mika who had taken an unhealthy obsession with his abs and was trying her hardest to see them as many times as she could.
"Listen," Sam sighed as he squirmed in the too tight green long sleeve that Mika had just conned him into trying on, the hungry look in her eyes was really starting to freak him out. "You must have something that will fit us, I saw several guys that looked close to Dean and my height," Sam chided. Mika scowled and pulled a dun shirt off the table and tossed it at his chest before crossing her arms. Sam held the shirt up to his frame checking that it at least had a chance of fitting, satisfied he tucked the new shirt between his knees and started to wriggle out of the green one.
"Oh my," the stifled gasp behind him made Sam slap his hand onto his back to cover up the four inch scar that marred the groove of his spine. Turning he saw a wide eyed Carl and a contemplative Van Helsing leaning against the wall behind him.
"That had to have hurt," Van Helsing stated coolly. Sam swallowed hard and turned back so Mika wouldn't see the scar and finished pulling off the shirt.
"You know, old war wounds and battle scars," Sam brushed it off pulling on the new shirt which loose sleeves were too short for his long arms.
"How did you get it?" Carl interjected curiously. Sam sighed as he started digging though the table of shirts praying that it was just Micas' lust that was preventing him from finding the right one.
"I was fighting a demon, thought I took it down but he got back up when I had my back turned," Sam muttered pulling a blue button up out of the pile and holding it up. Pulling off the dun one he tossed it to Dean, who had finally found a brown pair of boots, and slipped on the blue shirt sighing in relief as it fit.
"Wow," Carl said under his breath, "You must have great medical knowledge where you come from, get a wound like that here and you'll die in minutes." Carl was completely oblivious to the discomfort that rolled off the brothers in waves; it made the hair on the back of Van Helsing's neck stand up.
"Um, not to interrupted or anything," Dean butted in before Carl could get too carried away; he already knew it was too late to keep Van Helsing off their track. "I kinda think my sleeves are gonna catch on something." For emphasis Dean flapped his arms slightly waving the sleeves of the shirt that reminded him horribly of Fabio. 'The things I do for my brother'
"Yeah, and it still is kinda cold out there and I can't wear my jacket, so." Sam joined in the scrabble to get the subject off of his scar. Dean nodded his head vigorously and made faces of agreement before he spotted something flying at him out of the corner of his eye. Turning he managed to catch the bundle of leather that Mika had launched his way, she had a sickly sweet smile plastered on her face, that couldn't be good.
Dean slowly unfolded the bundle, it consisted of a leather vest that was a near match in color to his jacket and a matching pair of what appeared to be arching guards that would probably cover his entire forearm. Sam soon found himself in possession of a dark brown corduroy jacket that looked nearly identical to something he owned in the future. Dean had slipped on the vest and guards and was surprised and slightly horrified to find that they fit perfectly and solved his problem of loose sleeves. He looked over at Mika knowing that he had been played into almost everything he was wearing.
"You could probably wear your jacket over that if you get cold," Mika said trying her best to sound innocent, Dean nodded agreement with a forced grin.
"Perfect," Sam and Dean said almost together.
Sam and Dean shoved their old clothes into their rucksacks as Van Helsing paid for the services the Webbers had performed. Slipping on his jacket Dean grabbed his bag and one of the new weapons bags to help Carl attach them to the horses, Sam followed suit after tossing Van Helsing's coat to him.
"They're rather scary aren't they?" Carl muttered as he helped Dean put one of the bags on his horse.
"Scary does not even begin to describe that kid; she was startin' to freak me out. Reminded me of this gig where Sam and I hunted this clown that was killing people, thing had the freakiest smile I've ever seen." Dean shuddered as Van Helsing came down off the porch of the Webbers store.
"Hey, Dean," Van Helsing called as he quickly fastened his bag onto the horse.
"Hum?" Dean grunted as he mounted, rather surprised at how much easier it was with his new pants.
"Who wears emo pants now?" Dean tried hard not to laugh at Van Helsing's comeback, the time tone and person saying it made it completely hilarious instead of insulting. Dean had almost stifled the urge but then he looked at Sam and both of them busted up laughing. Carl looked lost as usual as he turned his horse and started to lead the way out of town.
Mika, Sam and Deans first fan girl.Van Helsing saying emo pants, like Optimus Prime saying eBay.Sam's Ghost Rider shirt was meant to be a gift from Dean because Sam is like ghost rider, except for the whole flaming skeleton thing. Imagine the look on Deans face if Sam turned into Ghost Rider… Oh no, I'm sensing a plot bunny.Strange thing: A couple days after I finished this chapter I was watching 1 vs. 100, and Fabio was on! And he was wearing a shirt eerily similar to the one I picked for Sam, man that guy is huge! And gross.Now that I think about is Sam really is an idiot for not realizing he was killed. They told him he was out for, what three days? My Dad had surgery and was in the hospital for a week, then a week later they took out the twenty staples and over two later he still isn't looking as good as Sammy.