Chapter 6
You Can All Sleep Sound Tonight
Sam missed his shoes. He had just gotten those sneakers, and he had been looking forward to wearing them for a good, long time. Unfortunately, Dean had had a different idea, and his brand new shoes had been melted to the shoulder of a road in New York. That had definitely not been part of Sam's Master Shoe Plan.
Even worse, it seemed that Dean had inadvertently added another ability to his ever-increasing repertoire, and it was driving his brother nuts. Sam winced as he heard another chunk of plaster drop from the ceiling onto his brother's bed.
He tried rolling over in his bed, but that only increased his uneasiness with the situation. Instead of feeling his brother's hot breath blowing across his face, it was now blowing across his neck, down his back, and, creepily enough, kinda turning him on.
With a groan, Sam rolled himself out of bed, glancing over his shoulder at his brother. Dean seemed totally oblivious as to the development of his newly acquired super breath. Unfortunately, Sam wasn't oblivious.
Grumbling to himself, he shuffled across the room to the dresser, where he'd set his cell phone before trying to get some sleep. It was early, and he was hoping Bobby was already up. In truth, he was starting to get concerned. What was happening to Dean obviously wasn't natural, and with their luck it wasn't good, either.
He slipped silently out of the room and clicked his phone on, dialing the number he had learned so many years ago. He listened with bated breath as the phone rang, snapping his fingers nervously at his side as he waited for Bobby to answer.
After the fourth ring, Bobby answered, sounding sleepy. "What is it?" the older hunter demanded gruffly.
"It's Sam," the younger man said, shifting from foot to foot and glancing over his shoulder, as if he could stop Dean from overhearing his conversation.
"Sam?" Bobby asked, "what's wrong?"
"It's Dean. We're in Black Rock, and I wanted to look through dad's old storage locker-"
"I already don't like where this going," Bobby moaned.
"Well, we were looking through his stuff," Sam continued, suddenly feeling as if anything bad that was going to happen to Dean was his own fault. "And Dean found this cape-"
"Don't tell me."
"He thought it was an old Halloween costume of dad's," Sammy explained, "and he-"
"Put it on? Dammit, Sam, I thought after everything that's happened to you two over the past few months, you'd learn to keep a better eye on him!"
"I take it it's not a Halloween costume, then?"
Bobby sighed. "Oh, it's a costume, all right, from the original Superman set."
"Like, Christopher Reeve?"
"Like George Reeves," Bobby clarified.
"The one that committed suicide?"
"The one and only," the older man sighed. He sounded more than tired- he sounded bone-weary.
"Well, why was it in dad's locker?"
"It was cursed. Cursed by its Hollywood history, if you'll believe that."
"What kind of curse?" Sam asked, dreading what he would hear.
"Whoever puts on the cape gets all the powers of Superman himself," Bobby explained, "has Dean…?"
"Everything but flight," Sam nodded. "Yeah. And what we're having trouble figuring out is, how is this a curse? I mean, he's invincible. He's strong and fast and a bit of a peeping tom. It's more of gift to him, really."
"But there's a downside."
"Isn't there always?"
Bobby sighed. "Sam, your brother's a hero now, right?"
"Sure, but he's always been-"
"And every hero needs a villain. Superman had Lex Luthor, Batman had the Joker, Spiderman had the Green Goblin. It's tradition. It provides conflict."
"What are you saying, Bobby?"
"I'm saying that as soon as your brother put on that cape he set into motion a series of events to rival even the latest box office smash. He made himself a hero, but he made someone else in the world a villain."
"Who?"
"Impossible to tell," Bobby said slowly, "but the last time your daddy and I dealt with this thing, before we locked it up in Black Rock, the villain followed the pattern of the latest Superman movie."
"So, whoever it is will probably use the more recent addition to the mythology to plot whatever he's gonna do?"
"It's possible," the older man agreed, "but not definite."
"Well, he'll come after Dean, won't he?"
"Not necessarily. The last guy to put on the cape lived in Iowa. His villain popped up in Michigan. He was easily corruptible and wanted to be on top. He was the perfect Luthor. He didn't even know about our Superman."
"Bobby," Sam said, "the latest addition to the Superman story is that new movie, the one with Brandon Routh. Did you see that?"
"Sorry, Sam. Don't see a lot of movies."
"Well, can we fix it?"
"Burning the cape using the same ritual you did for that rabbit's foot should work," Bobby reasoned, "it would strip Dean of those powers and change the villain back into an ordinary person. In theory, at least."
"Theory's all we've got," Sam admitted, "thanks, Bobby."
He could hear the slight smile in his friend's voice. "No problem, Sam. You take care of your brother, now. Keep him from trying to leap any tall buildings, all right?"
"Will do." He hung up the phone and headed back inside to find Dean sitting up in bed, brushing plaster off himself.
"So," the older man said slowly, "Bobby wants you to end my fun before it even begins? Not very fair, is it?"
"You heard that?"
Dean rolled his eyes. "Duh." He climbed out of his bed and stretched. "You were wrong, you know."
"I was?" Sam asked, confused.
"Yeah. The new Superman movie might seem like the most recent installment of the series, but you're overlooking the on-going adventures of Clark Kent's hot cousin and even hotter girlfriend on the CW. I hear Clark makes an appearance on the show, too, sometimes."
"So, you're saying that…?"
Dean sighed. "I think our Lex is gonna mimic theirs. Friend turned foe." He looked up at the ceiling. "What the hell happened here last night?"