Here's the next chapter! I'm seriously loving writing this story and I hope you guys are liking it as much as I am. Enjoy!
Oliver rarely slept for the night, he maybe got four hours a night, especially since he was usually out fulfilling his vigilante duties.
He returned to his home around four in the morning after an easy shift just checking on the people of the Glades and making a quick stop at a rich monsters home. He entered the house expecting everyone to be asleep but the light was on in the kitchen. Sam was sitting at the table with a glass of water. He was shirtless and in sweatpants, and looked like he had broken into a cold sweat. He was a large man, a heaping six foot four, but he was thin. Oliver could see where large muscles had worn and sunk away to thin ribs and arms. One wouldn't notice it normally but someone of Sam's size and profession was smaller than expected. Sam's face also looked unusually tired and sunken. His hair was disheveled and his eyes looked dim and glazed over as he stared ahead with the expression of pain and annoyance. Oliver noticed some scars on his torso and back, though nothing like his own, and a tattoo on his chest.
"I'm not used to having company at this time of night," Olive said softly. He had been standing in the kitchen for a few moments to see if Sam would have noticed him. Sam jumped a little like he had been paying attention to something else and had not even known Oliver was there. The younger Winchester's eyes refocused on Oliver and he smiled softly.
"I don't get much sleep." Sam said simply.
"Neither do I, but at least I have a choice."
"Dean told you guys, huh?"
Oliver nodded, "Felicity is terribly worried for you."
Sam sighed, "I didn't want to be a burden, and I'm surprised Dean is letting me work cases with him."
"He wants to keep your mind as occupied as possible." Oliver said sitting across from Sam. "The less you focus on what's in your head the less it affects you."
Sam scoffed, "I wish that's how it worked. No matter how busy I am or how intense the case he finds a way to break through any sort of concentration. He is always there."
"He's in here with us now then." Oliver stated, Sam nodded, "He's leaning against the wall trying to engage me in a discussion about a long list of people that I couldn't save."
"He's right there?" Oliver asked pointing at the wall farthest from where they were sitting, Sam nodded. Oliver pulled out a small green arrow and threw it where Lucifer was. It happened so fast that Sam wouldn't have known it did id he hadn't heard the arrow wedge itself into the wood of the wall.
"Did I get him?"
Sam's face broke into that grin that he has that lights up a room like sunshine, and then he laughed and Oliver couldn't help but laugh too.
"No you didn't," Sam said still chuckling, "Less than an inch from his face though, he wasn't expecting that at all."
"I'm glad I could lighten the mood and throw the devil for a loop."
Oliver stood to retrieve the pocked sized arrow from the wall and then he placed it in front of Sam, offering it to him as a gift. Before Sam could protest he was gone.
Sam tried to go back to sleep that night and Oliver heard the screams that had filled the house while he was out earlier. He couldn't un-hear those screams or the worried, strained voice of Dean Winchester trying to save his little brother.
-x-
By the middle of the next day Sam, Dean, Jo, And Felicity had made a decent plan on how they were going to get rid of the ghouls that were terrorizing Starling City.
"So where's Ollie Queen and Diggle?" Jo asked as the four of them left the Queen home and got into the impala.
"Well they were at Queen consolidated but they probably made it to the Arrowcave by now." Felicity told them.
"Why don't they just come back here? The Arrowcave or whatever doesn't seem very inviting." Dean questioned.
"Well, one, it's like our home base. It's hidden, it' got all our weapons and computers, and two, they're probably training."
"Training?" Sam asked.
"Oliver and Diggle like to stay in shape, also they're still teaching Roy some of the basics on keeping his anger and impatience at bay."
"Roy?" the three of them asked at once.
"Also known as Arsenal. He's lie Oliver's protégé, he's also Thea's, Oliver' little sister, boyfriend."
"I feel like I've stepped into a goddamn comic book." Dean grumbled.
They pulled up to Verdant and Dean cut the engine. Jo and Dean filled a bag with some weapons and Sam grabbed their Dad's journal, he wobbled a little as he walked and Felicity noticed. She walked next to him and wrapped her arm around his waist as they walked side by side into the Arrowcave. She hoped he thought she was just being affectionate.
When they entered the Arrowcave Oliver was doing pull ups on that weird that weird bar and rung thing that Felicity didn't know the name of, and Diggle and Roy were sparring.
"I'm going to choke on the amount of testosterone filling this room." Jo said cringing.
Oliver jumped dow and chuckled. The Winchester's observed the scars that littered Oliver's obscenely tones torso. They understood.
"Hey guys," Felicity said with a little wave.
"Hi blondie, who's tall dark and handsome? And taller dark and handsome? Oh boy another blondie." Roy smirked and Felicity rolled her eyes, Jo laughed, and Sam bit his tongue.
"We're Felicity's brothers, who're you Abercrombie? The side kick?" Dean asked with a grin. Diggle and Oliver laughed and Roy fumed a little. Oliver laid a hand on his shoulder.
"Roy this is my cousin Jo Harvelle, and my adopted brothers Sam and Dean Winchester." Felicity introduced, "Sam, Dean, Jo, this is Roy."
Roy stiffened. "Roy?" Oliver asked.
"Winchester?" Roy almost whispered, "Any relation to John Winchester?"
Dean's jaw clenched and Sam's face softened, "He was our father." Sam told him.
"Was?" Roy asked.
"He died around nine years ago." Dean said stiffly.
"Oh." Roy looked at his feet, "He saved my mom and I when I was little. Our tenant was a Rugaru."
"Well at least we don't have to explain the whole monster thing to you," Jo said with a shrug.
"Yeah, unfortunately I've been enlightened to the whole 'supernatural beings are real' thing." Roy said with a stiff smile, "So you guys are hunters right?" they nodded, "Grew up in the life, it's all we know." Sam explained.
"Wow, never would've pegged Blondie as one of you guys."
"I'm not," Felicity said, "I just grew up with it. I've maybe been on two hunts. What I do for team arrow is what I do for them."
"She's basically Bobby without the beard," Dean grumbled quietly but everyone heard him. Felicity smacked his arm and team arrow looked confused. Felicity brought Sam over to the chair at her computer desk.
"Felicity, really, I'm fine." Sam protested.
"Sit. Down." She said glaring at him—he did so. "Now," she said looking at everyone, "Let's gank some ghouls."
"Okay," Oliver said resting his hands on this hips, "how do we…hunt them?"
"Well first we need to find out who they ate last because that's who they'll look like," Jo said and Sam and Dean grimaced.
"You've dealt with them before," Diggle observed.
"We've dealth with basically everything before, we just really hate ghouls." Dean seethed.
"The last ghouls we encountered killed our half-brother Adam, and then posed as him to try and kill us for revenge because our dad killed his mother." Sam explained.
"Yeah and they tortured you," Dean added bitterly.
"Alrighty," Felicity said bringing things back to the task at hand, "I was able to use some of the cameras around the city to find some footage of the ghouls based off of the areas that have been getting hit the worst."
Everyone smiled and Sam beamed, "Great job Felicity," he told her, looking up at her from his seat.
"Let's get watchin then," Jo said clapping her hands together, "Let's watch the the most recent footage."
Felicity put the last ghoul footage up on the big screen and they sat down and waited for an hour and a half before they saw anything.
"Guys look," Roy said suddenly.
Two teen boys were following a woman and her boyfriend. The video went static for a moment and when the image cleared the teen age boys were tearing the couple to shreds, just chowing down like they hadn't eaten for days and all the food in the world had gone bad.
"Holy shit," Diggle breathed.
"You believe us now?" Dean asked raising an eyebrow. Diggle nodded.
"Felicity can you rewind it?" Sam asked standing slowing and walking closer to the screen, "Dean look at how they're eating them."
Dean tilted his head, "They're eating like zombies," he observed, "Ghouls usually prepare their food."
"So maybe they're not ghouls but zombies," Oliver offered. They shook their heads, "No zombies don't look human, they're undead, they look alive. Zombies legitimately look like walking dead people." Jo explained.
"Something else is going down," Sam said looking at his brother, "Something is causing the ghouls to rush and eat on the spot."
"Well," Oliver spoke up again, "Why don't we ask them?"
Dean smiled, "Now that we can do."
Felicity pulls up a clearer image of the couple so they can find out who the ghouls will be next and then pin points their locations.
"So how're we gonna go about this?" Roy asked.
"JO and I have a plan," Felicity said, "Oliver and Roy will capture them and bring them back here so Sam and Dean can um…interrogate them." Felicity looked at Dean out of the corner of her eye and waited for him to protest.
"Felicity its fine," Dean told her, "I don't mind doing a little poking a prodding as long as it's on a monster." Jo squeezed his arm a little.
"Are we talking about torture?" Diggle asked.
"Yes Diggle, we are," Oliver answered.
"Dean is, unfortunately, much too practiced when it comes to torture," Sam added.
Dean nodded only slightly and his jaw clenched, "We told you about Sammy's time in hell, we just forgot to mention my wonderful time down there the year before." Team arrow nodded and the topic was put to rest.
Oliver and Roy returned to the Arrowcave three hours later with the two ghouls who looked just like the man and woman who had been eaten earlier.
"You two are in for a surprise," the female ghoul said, "We're not what you think we are."
"We know exactly what you are," Oliver growled, "and you will not continue to terrorize my city."
"Oh-ho-hohhh," the male ghoul laughed, "Who wudda thunk, the vigilante and his bus boy know about us."
"What're you gonna do? You don't know how to kill us," the woman asked.
"I'm sure we could figure out how to kill you if we wanted to," Roy said as he and Oliver chained them to some chairs, "but we don't want you dead, we want information."
"Pffftttt, because we'll just tell you everything right?" the woman continued.
"It's not us you'll be telling everything to, it's them." Oliver pointed at the stair as Sam, Dean, Jo, Felicity, and Diggle walked down entered. Jo, Felicity, and Diggle hung back and Sam and Dean continued forward. Team arrow wasn't sure how the monsters were going to react.
The ghoul's eye's widened and they stiffened in their seats.
"Winchesters." The male ghoul hissed.
"It's starting to get weird when monsters we've never met before know who we are, huh Sammy?" Dean asked.
"You're right Dean, I mean, I hadn't realized we were so famous." Sam replied as they stopped right in front of the ghouls.
The female ghoul roller her eyes, "The two of you have undesirable posters everywhere. Keep away from the Winchester's is a common motto that all monsters live by."
"Too bad it didn't work for you." Dean smirked, "So, we can do this easily and you can tell us what you know and then we kill you or we can beat it out of you and then kills you."
"Either way you're going to die so might as well answer our questions." Sam said with a shrug.
"Who are you working for?" Dean asked.
"What makes you think we're working for someone?" the male ghoul asked.
"Well unless you're acting like zombies for fun then something is rushing you, and the more you rush the more people die."
"You're just going to let them call us zombies?" the female ghoul hissed at her partner.
"Well they're right, we were sloppy." The man answered back.
Dean pulled out a long, sharp, silver knife and flipped it around in his hand before he tilted it so it glint in the light, "Start talkin' or I'll start carving into both of you." He took a step closer.
"Boss sent us and some others into Starling City because not enough people are dying. Ever since this dumbass vigilante showed up the death rate plummeted." The woman told them.
"Why does your boss need people to die?" Sam asked.
"He needs souls," the guys said, "There's not enough souls in hell, it's fucking up the ecosystem."
Sam and Dean looked at each other with annoyed expressions on their faces and said simultaneously, "Crowley."
They turned back to the ghouls, "Alright thank you for your time." Dean smiled and before the ghouls could say anything Sam had shot the woman in the head and Dean had slammed the knife deep into the man's temple. Sam returned the gun to the waistband of his jeans and Dean slid the knife from the ghouls head and cleaned it off on a handkerchief that he kept in his back pocket.
"What just happened? Diggle asked.
"Well we know who's behind the deaths so they killed the ghouls." Jo said with a shrug.
"What do we do with the bodies?" Roy asked.
"Who is Crowley?" Oliver asked next.
"We burn the bodies, it's not that hard to get rid of them," Sam explained.
"And Crowley is a giant pain in my ass," Dean grumbled, "And also the King of Hell."
"There's an actual King of Hell?" Roy asked.
"Yeah, who else is gonna keep it organized down there?" Jo replied.
"What about Lucifer?" Diggle asked.
"Contrary to popular belief, that bastard fallen angel is kept in a cage so he doesn't fuck things up with an apocalypse." Dean huffed.
"That's why I hallucinate him. After I put him in his cage he tortured me." Sam explained. They stopped talking about Lucifer.
"So what do we do about Crowley?" Felicity asked.
"I'm thinking we try talking to him first." Sam offered.
"You can just call up the King of Hell and have a friendly conversation?" Roy chuckled.
Dean chuckled, "Not exactly."
"We're going to summon him, we'll have a devil's trap ready so he'll be powerless and trapped." Sam told them.
"And I'm assuming Dean is calling for more back up?" Jo asked.
"What like more hunters? Do we have time to wait for them?" Oliver asked.
"Actually our back up is a good friend of ours," Felicity told them, "You're gonna meet Cas."
Okay! Here's the third chapter! So in the second chapter that I just uploaded I said that cas was dead but I fixed it because I meant Gabriel. Everything's good now. Also this is super AU with a lot of things, obviously bc Jo is alive, but also I have it that Sam's noggin broke on its own and that Cas didn't break it bc I hate that that happened it doesn't work with my story line. So there. hope you guys are liking it ! R&R! One Love, Liz.