Balthazar led the way out of the restaurant, walking quickly and quietly and keeping his head low. He stopped only when he saw Pamela the server-bot, who had just finished amazing a table of reptiloids with her mind-reading dessert trolley.

"Excuse me?"

"Well hey there, handsome. Problem?"

"Yes. You see, we need to escape in something of a hurry, and we need a distraction and… well if I'm honest I've always wanted to do this, so… would you mind if…"

He closed his eyes and set his face in an expression of great concentration. Pamela laid her hands on the trolley once more, and soon she was able to hand him his dessert of choice.

"You didn't get it from me." She warned, before stepping aside. Balthazar smiled, nodded, and turned to Gabriel.

"Baldur was the one who got you expelled so he could steal your girlfriend, correct?"

"Correct."

"Then you can thank me for this later." So saying, Balthazar pulled back his arm, and threw the heavily laden custard cream pie at the sleazy humanoid figure on stage. Baldur was knocked off his feet, and the crowd erupted in noise. It was under the cover of such chaos that Balthazar, Gabriel, Sam, Castiel and Dean made it to the parking bays.

"It's the ship." Castiel said, with certainty. "They're chasing us because of the ship. We need to lose it, it will only cause problems."

"But…" Gabriel looked mortally wounded. "It's my ship! I stole it, it's mine now!"

"Well then how else are we going to lose the police or the hired assassins or whoever else is after us?"

"Look, we just need to jump back there, right?" Balthazar said, trying to hurry everyone along to the spaceship by nature of looking urgent. "If the police are coming here, then we can pass them while they're warping."

"See?" Gabriel beamed, tapping the communicator on his wrist and triggering the Impala's doors to open. "No reason to get rid of the little beauty. So let's all bundle in, get back to our own time period, and get on with our lives."

"Sounds like a plan." Dean flashed a quick, reassuring smile to Castiel as they entered the ship. Castiel still looked uncertain. "Hey. At the very least, you'll get to say 'I told you so', right?"

(-*-)

The tension on the bridge was so strong that it could have punched a hole through a Jagulan Sun-tiger, using another Jagulan Sun-tiger. Gabriel glared at the Visi-screens. Sam watched Gabriel. Dean sat in one of the chairs and stared into the middle distance. Balthazar was working steadily to maintain a happily detached drunken buzz, and Castiel was quietly inhaling some sort of fumes in the corner.

"Bobby." Gabriel drummed his fingers against the controls. "Tell me something."

"The police pursuit ship is approaching us through temporal warp at a speed of R7."

"What does that mean?" Dean muttered, as Balthazar leant against his chair.

"Very fast."

"R8…" Bobby grumbled. "Initiating scrambler. R9. R10…"

Everyone seemed to hold their breath.

"Done. They've passed us. Leaving temporal warp."

The relieved group sigh made Dean's head swim. He caught Castiel's eye, and exchanged timid smiles.

"Bobby, you genius!" Gabriel grinned, patting the control panel. "I'll plug you into an AI hotel once we dock up! Castiel, whatever you're smoking, put it out and set a navigation course. Balthazar, you're… about to fall over. Dean! Make yourself useful, check the rear Visi-screen and make sure the coast is clear. Sam, buff yourself up and get to my quarters. We need to have…"

"Let me guess. 'Thank-god-we're-not-incarcerated' sex?" Sam sighed, although he didn't seem all that upset.

"Damn straight." Gabriel shot a winning smile around the bridge as everyone went about their business. "We have once again survived an otherwise perilous situation. Through my brilliant captain-ship, we are once again safe."

"Well, except for the fleet of ships that is waiting behind us."

"Yeah, but we can't… what ships?"

"These ships." Dean pointed at the screen, looking up at Gabriel's sharp tone. "Did you not..? Sorry, I thought you knew about them."

Even Balthazar was suddenly very sober, as Bobby brought the rear Visi-screens up onto the main view. A rather large amount of Rahptoor Streamlining and Efficiency Task Force ships were slowly turning to circle them, each one captained by a characteristically curmudgeonly Dæmon.

"I'm… I'm sorry, fellas," Bobby mumbled, "but it seems they're jamming my circuits with a scrambler signal. I can't get us away."

"Ah." Said Gabriel. "Those ships."

(-*-)

In one of its more sociological entries, 'The Bloody Invaluable Book: Lightyears of Entertainment' tells us that throughout history, every major civilisation has passed through three phases. The first is defined as 'survival' (or 'how'), the second as 'enquiry' (or 'why'), and the third as 'sophistication' (or 'where'). It is important to note that, whilst planetary societies or races may take hundreds of years to pass from one phase to the next, a small, isolated community can exemplify this pattern in minutes.

"How did they find us?" Dean stared up at the ships, suddenly understanding what post-traumatic stress really felt like.

"I don't know…" Balthazar rested a hand on Dean's shoulder, running a hand over his chin. "Maybe they tracked our temporal wavelength signature, like the police did."

"Why are they after us?" Gabriel glared at the Earth man and his semi-cousin indignantly. "I'm on a lot of people's lists, but I'm pretty sure I never crossed a Dæmon."

"Incoming transmission." Bobby sounded more than a little embarrassed at landing them in their current predicament.

"Yeah… um, accept." Castiel shrugged, looking around. "Well, where else will we get answers from?"

The visi-screen gave way to an image of Prostetnic Dæmon Crowley, who grinned into the camera like the smug bastard that he was.

"Prime Minister Angeles."

"Yeah, hi. Um, listen, my companions and I just had a large lunch, and now we've got a pressing appointment to be… anywhere else. So if you wouldn't mind un-scrambling our equipment…"

"I am very sorry." Crowley smiled, before laughing. "Oh, who am I kidding? No I'm not. Listen, you seem like a rather enjoyable group, and I'm sure if I were to meet you all somewhere more casual, I would almost definitely think about not killing you."

"You're too kind." Balthazar scowled. Crowley ignored him, preferring instead to consult a computer screen.

"I just need a small favour, then I'll make sure that you're let go. Which of you gents is 'Dean Winchester'?"

"Me." Dean held his hand up, feeling very uncomfortable as Crowley's jet-black eyes flicked over him.

"Really? Well, I have to say, I don't see what all the fuss is about myself, but very well. Dean Winchester, the Rhaptoor Streamlining and Efficiency Task Force have been asked to secure your loyalty and employment under Misters Michael and Lucifer Mouse. You've been headhunted, if you like. Will you please approach your ship's teleportation bay and beam over to us."

"Well…" Gabriel blinked. "Nice knowing you, Earth man."

"No!" Dean yelled, staring at him. "What the hell, dude, I'm not going over there!"

"Gabriel, that's too far." Castiel seemed just as annoyed as Dean, as he glared his semi-cousin down. Dean smiled thankfully at him. Gabriel looked to Balthazar.

"Oh come on, cousin. No one deserves the sort of treatment they'll give him."

"I see." Crowley sighed, "It will be put on record that you have declined our offer… As such, we will be destroying your ship and plucking you from the wreckage."

"What?" The group spoke as one. Even Sam sounded shocked.

"You lying dick!" Gabriel yelled. "You said you'd let us go!"

"No, Mister Angeles, I said I'd be sure to let you go. In the same way The Planet Earth was let go." Crowley flashed an insincere. "A pleasure meeting you, Prime Minister. Prepare to be streamlined."

The transmission cut out. Balthazar looked at Castiel. Castiel looked at Dean. Dean looked at Gabriel. Gabriel looked at Sam.

"Well…" Said Sam. "That's really depressed me."

(-*-)

Dean stared at his watch, and laughed bitterly. Castiel blinked at him.

"What?"

"We're at five minutes to midnight." Dean said, gaining blank looks form everyone but Sam. "Sorry… earth humour."

"No, we got it." Balthazar sighed. "It was just an awful joke… Well, I managed to cheat immolation for, what, seven or eight hours? I hope I gave you a good trip space-side, Dean."

"Hey, guys?" Bobby's voice cut over the speakers, so businesslike and snappy that one could almost think they weren't almost certainly going to die. "If you saps want to stop throwing yourselves a pity party for the… approximately two minutes we have before the Dæmon ships open fire, can I suggest something that might just save your sorry asses? Not that you deserve it…"

"Bobby?" Gabriel stared at the speakers, hope gleaming in his eyes.

"If you numbskulls can make your way to the escape pods, I could have enough power to jettison them if we were to run Leap of Faith warp drive. Only thing is, someone would have to stay behind to initiate it."

Everyone eyed everyone else, wondering if they were all thinking the same thing. Then they cautiously eyed Gabriel, who did not seem to be on the same page. Then, they eyed Sam.

"No." Gabriel shook his head. "If we're going to get rid of someone, we may as well hand Dean over to the Dæmons. How is leaving Sam here to be immolated any different?"

"I'm not a living organism, Gabriel." Sam sighed. If I stay behind, there is a slim probability that I'll survive."

"How slim?"

Sam stared at the floor.

"How slim, Sam?"

"Approximately two to the power of nine million, seven hundred and eighty nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety nine to one against."

Gabriel stared at him.

"You're not doing it."

"No one else can. And besides, it'll be a good way to stop the pain in all the diodes down my left hand side."

"You best go, if you're going." Bobby said, as the air around them started to crackle with electricity. On the Visi-screens, the Rhaptoor ships began to glow ominously as they gained energy, their weapons ready to fire. The screens crackled with static and cut out.

"Come on." Castiel nodded, stumbling to his feet.

It all happened in rather a dramatic manner. The speakers started playing feedback, crackling with noise and static as the ring of ships surrounding them began to barrage them with excess energy. Balthazar was dragging a practically comatose Gabriel along the corridor. Dean stumbled along, the floor shaking beneath him, very aware that he had already lost his birth home, and was now about to lose a potential replacement before he'd even gotten to know it. The sounds of static and feedback were drowning out pretty much everything everyone said as they stumbled towards the escape pods.

"Each pod…" Castiel shouted over the noise, "takes two people. We need to know…"

The ship jolted violently, causing Dean and Balthazar to both lose their balance and stumble forward.

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Sam heaved a sigh and glanced down at his shiny metal hands. He'd never said anything to Gabriel, because he'd guessed it would sound ungrateful, but he'd always felt kind of like he was an abomination in his metal body. His human consciousness had been so contradicted by the machine's programming, so upgraded and honed, that he didn't really work as a human any more.

And people wondered why he was depressed.

Sam clenched the fingers on his left hand as the odd pain shot through the diodes in his left hand side.

Here he was, brain he size of a small moon, and he was putting his survival on the incredibly slim possibility that he might survive, while the humans ran off to save their skins.

It was better than being asked to take hitchhikers up to the bridge.

He reached out and pushed the Leap of Faith button. A bolt of energy passed through the ship, causing the ship to convulse and twist as it tried simultaneously to move and stay still. The escape pods leapt from their moorings, before blinking to a set of coordinates randomly generated by the Leap of Faith drive. The Rhaptoor ships let loose their fire, tearing the ship to pieces.

(-*-)

Dean tried hard not to be sick as the capsule sped its way through time and space, very aware that G-force was playing with his stomach and brain the way a baker played with a bowlful of dough. It came to a quick, sudden jolting stop, before tumbling over so that the ceiling quickly became the floor.

"Urgh." Dean groaned, as he pulled himself up to his feet. "Hey… are you ok?"

"Yes…" Castiel groaned, having tumbled down next to Dean. "I'll be fine. I hope Balthazar and Gabriel had a… slightly smoother landing."

Castiel opened a panel in the wall of the pod, before tapping at the newly exposed buttons.

"Atmosphere is stable. We can have a look around, if you want."

"Sure." Dean shrugged, as Castiel forced open the pod door and led the way outside. He glanced once more at his watch, realising it was five minutes past twelve. "Thank god it's Friday…"