By the time the Blackbird touched down in the jungle, everyone on board had objectives in mind. Any force necessary to meet those objectives was considered acceptable. First and foremost, free the captives. Second, destroy the laboratory. And finally, any surviving members of the organization in charge were to be taken to S.H.I.E.L.D. to be questioned.

It sounded like a simple plan. But that was before they got on the ground, and realized they were up against a very large group of mutants who were also being possessed by demons. The people in charge of the facility were prepared for any type of incoursion. There were angelic wards to keep out the host of heaven. There were dampening fields that suppressed communications. And a vertigo field that rendered the humans in the group so dizzy they fell into unconsciousness.

Dean wound up in a devil's trap. Knight of Hell or no, he still had a few weaknesses. He made it as far as the laboratory doors, and walked right into it without even thinking that these assholes would know how to build one strong enough to hold him, or even build one at all.

The entire lab was full of activity. People in scrubs and lab coats running around, gathering laptops and hard drives and files, doing the mad dash to evacuate.

One of the doctors paused upon seeing an occupant in the trap, and shouted, "What are you doing down here? You're supposed to be protecting us!"

"Just scratch the paint on the edge of this trap, and I'll give you all kinds of protection," Dean promised, his voice filled with rage.

"I don't think that would be wise," another member of the labcoat brigade said. But this guy, he was different. The tingling sensation on Dean's skin reminded him of Castiel, but there was something off about this guy that made the hunter certain that this was no angel.

Dean's eyes narrowed. "Who the fuck are you?"

"Just a humble scientist," he said with an overly bleached smile. "But you… You are not someone I expected to walk into my lab, Mr. Winchester." He paused, chuckling, before asking, "Or should I call you Sir Winchester? Being a Knight of Hell and all."

At that moment, there was a scream from the opposite end of the lab as Wolverine dropped down from a ventilation shaft, his claws slicing through the necks of two of the lab techs.

"Oh dear…" Captain White Teeth sighed. "Looks like I'm going to need to find a few new interns." He looked back at Dean, edging closer to the trap. "I think it's time I relocate before anything unpleasant happens." There was a cry of agony from across the room, and he added, "Well, you know, to me."

"Vetis!" came a shout from behind Dean.

Wade sprang through the door, swiping his katana through the air, barely missing the neck of the scientist, who vanished with a rush of wind. Deadpool threw his swords with a guttural shout, taking out two nearby lab coats. Then pulled out his gun and started knee-capping everyone in sight. In less than 30 seconds from the moment the merc arrived, the entire room was down, mostly moaning in agony.

Then the merc turned to Dean, his head cocked to the side, a snide smile under the mask. "Did somebody get stuck?"

Dean's eyes narrowed. "Just break the damned trap."

"Don't worry, Chester. Unca' Deadpool'll take care of you," he said as he pulled his katana from Bleeding Lab Henchman #2, and scratched the tip across the circle. Immediately, Dean felt the etheric chains fall away. "All better, sweetums?"

"Perfect, sugar lump," Dean groused.

"Quit flirting," Logan growled as he strode across the mess. "We ain't done yet. Widow says she found an underground chamber on the other end of the grounds."

Wade and Dean followed behind Logan, who was following his nose through the tunnels, passing the unfortunate guards that Dean had dispatched on his way to the laboratory. Bucky was waiting for them by the door to the cells, looking exceptionally grim even for him.

"It's not a pretty sight," he said softly.

The first thing anyone noticed was the stink. An acrid mix of urine, blood, sulfur, and the fetid stench of death. The occupants of the cells looked like corpses, though most of them were alive. Alive, meaning they had a heart beat. But none of them seemed to have much life in them.

Some just sat on their ratty bed, eyes clouded and staring out at nothing. Others hugged themselves, rocking back and forth like a metronome. There were a few who mumbled incoherently, saying the same phrases over and over again. But the worst were the ones who were very active, shouting or screaming as they slammed their bodies into the walls and bars.

Here and there, sometimes inside cells with others, were the dead. Some were fresh enough to be bloated, while others were nearly completely devoured by insects, and Dean assumed, their starving cell mates.

In simplest terms, they were overused meatsuits. They had been possessed and put through a thousand torments, then thrown into a cell and left to rot. Dean had seen it many times with humans who had taken too much abuse while under a demon's control. Humans usually died, but these poor bastards were not regular humans. Their bodies were different. The next evolution of humanity. Super beings.

Black Widow came out of one of the halls, and said, "I found another room."

The room was another laboratory, much smaller than the one Dean found. The floor was littered with drooling bodies, their eyes vacantly staring at the floor where they dropped. They did not have the tang of sulfur on their skin. It was...something different. It reminded Dean vaguely of the tormented husks that archangels left behind.

This lab was not silent, though. It was filled with the moans and howls of anguish, issuing from glass-enclosed cubicles that contained beings of all sorts, all in various stages of live-dissection. There were mutants, some with strange skin and alien eyes. There were also supernatural creatures. Then, in the center of the laboratory, and obviously the most intensely studied judging by the amount of sensors and equipment surrounding the chamber, was an angel.

The blue glow of Grace flowed over the vessel (a male's body), focusing around the areas that were pinned back. The angel's chest was open, leaving its organs exposed. As Dean drew closer, he could see the Enochian symbols that bound the creature. Its eyes were burned out, and its mouth hung slack. It was not dead, but clearly it was in agony.

"Jesus," Logan said, shaking his head.

Wade was silent, staring at one of the creatures that Dean figured to be some kind of vampire, though it had the musky scent of a shapeshifter. The creature was pinned down like a frog in biology class, eyes glassy and staring up at the ceiling.

"Jesus ain't here," Wade said softly. "We should put them out of their misery."

Logan put a hand on the merc's shoulder. "Let S.H.I.E.L.D. take care of it, Wade."

"We're going to kill that fucking bastard," Deadpool growled. "We're going to rip him apart. And this time, we're going to make sure he can't fucking come back."

Dean nodded. Vetis needed to die. They'd played around enough. The demonic power inside the hunter was becoming natural for him to use. He didn't need any more practice. "By the time we're done with the sonofabitch, he'll be wishing he was in Hell."

S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived shortly after, flooding the jungle compound with agents. Dean followed the rest of the team out of the cells, and found he was thankful to be in the clean air again. He needed a shower and a bottle of Hunter's Helper, but for now he would settle for whatever comforts the Blackbird provided as he trailed behind Wade.

Wade was quiet the entire trek back, shoulders slumped and feet dragging like he was completely exhausted. Maybe he was, considering how many bullets ripped through him. But Dean knew it was much more than that. Wade was thinking about things he didn't like to think about. And Dean was pretty much in the same boat.

On the Blackbird, Wade sat down on the bench seat with a heavy sigh, cradling his head in his hands. Dean sat beside him, giving him enough room to breath, but close enough so that neither of them felt alone.

It had been an intense day, to say the very least. And it was far from over. Once Black Widow, Bucky, and Logan were back, they were informed that the next stop would be S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters in New York City to be debriefed. Wade smirked, but whatever snark he had about "debriefing" died on his tongue. He just didn't have the energy.

"Who was the guy in the laboratory?" Logan asked Wade after an hour of silence. "How do you know him?"

Wade took a deep breath. "Long story short, I cheated a demon. Not that I actually got anything out of it. But still. You should actually thank me. Tony Stark would be dead if not for my cunning brilliance."

Logan's brow furrowed. "What?"

"Like I said, it's a long story. Ask Tony about it sometime," the merc finished. "I thought the guy was gone. Dead. Should be dead. Or at least trapped in Hell. Can't imagine Mephisto letting him go easily. But the bastard's been on my trail for a little while now. That's why Dean and I are working together."

"And you're a demon, right?" Logan said, giving a quick sniff. "I noticed the way those asshole's stunk. Smell just like you."

Dean could see the subtle movement of the adamantium claws beneath Logan's skin, and he said, "I'm not like the demons that were there. I'm not possessing anybody. This is my body." He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the red, raised Mark of Cain. "This mark is what made me a demon."

"And that bone blade?" Logan asked.

"It's called the First Blade," Dean said, his fingers touching it under his jacket. "Originally owned by Cain, you know. From the Bible?"

Logan rolled his eyes. "You really expect me to believe all this Demons and Hell bullshit?"

"You'll never die, so why does it matter," Wade said with a hint of derision. "I've died enough to know the place pretty well."

"You think this Vetis guy is planning something?" Logan asked both of them.

Dean shrugged. "It's hard to tell, but most Demons, especially the ones dealing in souls, are always working some kind of an angle."

Logan was quiet for a moment, staring down at his hands as he flexed his fingers. Then he looked at Dean. "When we get to New York, don't go disappearing. I think there's a lot of people who need to know what you know about demons, especially after what we saw today. If there are demons targeting mutants, we need to know how to fight them. And…" he sighed, before adding, "How to fix the damage."

"Okay," Dean said with a nod. "I might need to call in a couple other experts."

"Do whatever you have to do."

Everyone lapsed into silence, the only sound the soft hum of the Blackbird's engines. Dean leaned back and closed his eyes, trying to figure out how to approach Sam and Castiel about coming to New York. They hadn't talked much about Dean and Wade's mission to find Vetis, but after seeing the asshole face to face and knowing exactly what he was doing, Dean knew that he had to be stopped.