THEN: After not dying in a deadly explosion as a result of Dean's meddlings with the ghost portal, the Winchesters were driven out of Amity Park by a widespread blackout that they mistook for a demon attack. Danny's first attempt at being a model for jumpsuits fails horribly when he apparently dies by electrocution as the portal turns on... with him inside.
NOW:
The Impala rolled into the parking lot of the Roadhouse after a long and exhausting hunt. Vampires were really more of a pain than they had any right to be. To make matters worse, the impromptu vampire purge had come directly on the heels of Dean's capture by that damn djinn. Sam climbed out of the driver's side and slammed the door, perhaps a little harder than it needed to be slammed. The car jostled and woke Dean, sleeping in the passenger seat. He tried to jerk awake, but his body was still recovering from both the djinn attack and his small role in the vampire hunt, so he lolled his way to consciousness instead. Sam hadn't let him do much but snipe the vamps from afar with bullets full of dead man's blood.
Staggering a little, Dean made his exit from the Impala and followed Sam into the Roadhouse, just catching the screen door as it swung shut behind his brother. The inside was smokey from some older hunters having a few cigars off to the side.
"Sam, Dean!" Ellen called from behind the bar, "How's it been?"
Dean smiled to acknowledge her as he looked around for Jo's blonde hair, leaving Sam to do the talking. He meandered his way slowly over to the bar, keeping his head on a swivel for Jo.
As he moved through a cluster of hunters, he caught a couple of words he hadn't heard in quite a while. "...Amity Park." The hunter who'd been talking nodded conspiratorially at his mates around the table as if he had just told them a juicy bit of gossip. Dean slid silently into the table next to theirs, his back to them and his head in his arms, every bit the exhausted hunter that he was. With his face buried in his arms, he kept one ear tuned into the conversation at the next table.
"Amity Park?" asked one scruffy voice, "So someone decided to take on that giant ghost infestation over there?"
Giant ghost infestation? Dean thought.
"Apparently." Dean recognized this as the hunter he'd heard first. "Inviso-Bill, they call him. A ghost himself according to some rumors, but I think he's just got himself a hold of some major mojo. I've heard tell he goes around shooting ghosts down with some sort of soup thermos contraption."
The other hunters muttered. "A soup thermos?" one of them checked.
"Yeah. He's either working with those nutjob Fentons or he... borrowed some of their more reliable inventions. And get this: he's apparently young."
"How young?"
"The rumors vary on the age. Some say as young as twelve, but the oldest I've heard is still only seventeen. My guess is it's a local high school kid with a score to settle with the supernatural."
Dean heard murmurs of assent from the other hunters. It was a common enough story. Loved one gets offed by a spectre and the kid decides his only purpose in life is getting revenge on all ghostkind. It wasn't too different from Dean's own story. The way into hunting is just as bloody as the way out. He mused to himself. I hope this kid knows what he's doing... Dean's mind returned to the boy with the too-wide blue eyes from their misadventure in Amity Park six months previously. He hoped Danny was taking care of himself. Big hunts could rip a town up from its roots, he knew from experience.
Behind him, the hunters continued going back and forth with speculations and rumors about the new kid hunter of Amity Park, but Dean was only half listening now, his stamina having deserted him.
Someone kicked his leg. Dean mumbled frostily what they could do with their foot, but the person only kicked him again.
"I said you could go..." He opened one eye in the direction of his assailant and trailed off as he caught sight of the long blonde hair and bright eyes of Jo.
"Shove it up my ass?" she asked, tilting her head and giving him that thin-lipped smile that usually came before him getting his butt whooped. Dean blushed through his freckles and pushed himself into a sitting position, smiling sheepishly.
"You look like hell," Jo remarked, grasping Dean's arm in support as he swayed in his seat.
"Yeah, well djinns suck," Dean mumbled, pressing his palms into the edge of the table to make the world stop spinning.
"I'll get you some water." With Jo's hand gone from his shoulder, he nearly toppled out of the chair before deciding head down was better. Mere seconds after she had departed, the chair next to Dean made a low squealing sound as somebody pulled it out and sat down.
That was fast. Dean thought, opening one eye. Instead of being greeted with Jo's smile, however, he was assaulted with Sam's concerned stare. "Whadd'you want?" he said into his arm.
Completely overlooking his brother's pale, sweaty face, Sam said, enthusiastically, "So, get this, there's rumored to be a kid ghost hunter in Amity Park!" Dean just stared at him with one eye. "You know, with the Fentons and the portal and the green ghost?" Dean mumbled something unintelligible. "I was thinking, after you recover we could head over there and see if he needs any help. If the Fentons got that portal working again -" Dean raised his eyebrow "- I know, but that Maddie was a smart one, she might have figured out whatever wires you switched and fixed it by now."
Dean finally figured he needed to actually contribute to the conversation. He sat up slowly, eyes clamped shut. "What about the yellow-eyed demon? We just gonna let him go?"
"Let him go? Dean, we never had him," Sam said, "We can wait for Ash to come up with another lead, but in the meantime, we can go help this hunter kid."
"Sam, I-" Dean was cut off by the chill of something freezing touching the fingers of the hand on the other side of his crossed-arm pillow. He yelped, jerking upright.
Jo smiled slyly and slid the cold glass toward him. "Ash wants to see y'all," she said, nodding towards the bar where Ash had his nightmare of a laptop open. Ash waved them over. Dean gave Jo a glare and was about to get up when she reached out and pushed him back into his chair.
"Wha-?"
"You're not going anywhere until you've drained that glass," she said, smiling gently, "You almost fainted on me a minute ago." Dean grimaced and gulped down the water as Sam waited for him. The water was cool and refreshing and Dean instantly felt much better, slamming the drained cup back down on the table and pushing himself to his feet. Jo smiled, scooping the glass up and walking away without another word. Dean watched the swaying strings of her apron as she retreated.
Despite the restorative powers of the water, Dean was forced to sit down on a bar stool to hear what Ash had to say.
"I got y'all a lead," Ash said, spinning his laptop around so the brothers could see the screen: a map of Illinois with a red pin in the northwest region. "Y'all ever heard of Amity Park, Illinois?"
Dean raised an eyebrow at Sam as he responded, "Apparently it's all anyone's willing to talk about around here." Sam looked confused.
"I thought there was just a big ghost infestation in Amity Park," he said, crossing his arms.
"Sounded to me like someone was getting their hands into something they shoulda stayed well enough away from," Ash said, pressing the spacebar on his laptop. The map zoomed in on the Illinoian town, showing more map pins in blue and green.
"What are those?" asked Sam, indicating the pins.
"Incidences of strange occurrences or ghost sightings," Ash replied, "The blue pins are for strange occurrences like a building found destroyed overnight. The green pins are ghost sightings, which I feel are self-explanatory." Dean cringed. There were a lot of green pins. Looking closer, he saw that a lot of them had small, black letters on them.
"IB," Dean said, pointing at one such pin, "What does that mean?"
Ash leaned over to see where he was pointing. "Ah, yeah, 'IB.' Stands for 'Inviso-Bill.' No one really knows who or what he is. Some people say he's a ghost, other people say he's a hunter. No one can get a good enough picture for me to tell, but from the ones I have seen I can tell you two things. One is that he seems to patrol the town picking fights with ghosts. Two is that there ain't no way he's older than a high schooler."
Dean thought about his and Sam's trip to Amity Park months ago and came up with another question. "What about the Fentons?"
"Amity Park's self-proclaimed ghost hunting experts?" Ash snorted derisively. "What about 'em?"
"What do they think about all this?"
Ash chuckled and turned his computer back around, typing and clicking as he looked something up. "They're pretty clear on their position," he said, spinning his laptop back to face the Winchesters. Ash had looked up a video on the website of Amity Park News and had started playing it, muting it so Dean and Sam were forced to read the subtitles.
A male reporter stood before the smoldering ruins of what looked like a warehouse.
[Lance Thunder] Lance Thunder here with the Amity Park News. Last night, witnesses reported yet another ghost attack on the warehouse you can see behind me. Video submitted by eyewitnesses showed that, yet again, Inviso-Bill was involved. This time fighting his old rival, a ghost calling himself "The Box Ghost".
The scene cut to a crude video recorded on some handheld device. The view wobbled, focusing in on a green and blue light storm coming from the warehouse Lance Thunder had been standing in front of. As they watched, a small, lithe form zipped into the air above the warehouse, its black jumpsuit kept from blending into the night sky by the dull green aura that surrounded it and the glowing white head of hair that swirled in the wind. More subtitles scrolled across the bottom of the screen.
[Eyewitness 1] Oh my gosh! It's Inviso-Bill!
[Eyewitness 2] Let's get closer!
The camera wobbled its way nearer to what Sam and Dean could now clearly see was a battle. Even with all the jerking from whoever was holding the camera, they could see the small white-headed form that Dean assumed was Inviso-Bill, hold his hands in front of himself and release a green glowing beam of energy into the warehouse. A return-fire of crates and cardboard boxes forced Inviso-Bill to perform some rather impressive evasive maneuvers before he could fire his green beam of energy back at whatever was attacking him. As he moved, Dean could see that he didn't have legs. Below the white belt that demarcated his hips, there was only the wispy form of a long black tail.
From that white belt, Inviso-Bill suddenly pulled a small tubular contraption that glinted silver in his green aura. That must be the soup thermos those other guys were talking about... mused Dean. Pointing it down into the warehouse, Inviso-Bill fired a blue blast of energy into the interior. Apparently he missed.
[Box Ghost] BEWARE!
Another barrage of boxes flew out of the warehouse, barely missing Inviso-Bill. The two eyewitnesses were now fairly close to the warehouse, and a crate smashed beside them, just out of view of the camera. The camera jumped, whoever was holding it inadvertently turning it to face the broken remains of the crate.
[Eyewitnesses 1 & 2] AAAAGH!
[Inviso-Bill] What the heck are you two doing?! Get away from here! It's dangerous!
The camera flicked upwards suddenly, focusing on Inviso-Bill, who was now zipping towards it, glowing green eyes wide with adrenaline. As he approached, the video started to be overtaken with static fuzz.
[Eyewitness 2] Inviso-Bill!
[Inviso-Bill] For the last time, it's -!
The video fuzzed out completely, apparently cutting Inviso-Bill off. The video cut back to Lance Thunder, still standing in front of the warehouse remains.
[Lance Thunder] As always, the video feed cut out as Inviso-Bill approached. We've asked two experts - and here Lance visibly rolled his eyes - to the scene today to ask why that is and if Inviso-Bill's continued presence in Amity Park poses any risk to our city's electric grid.
Thunder beckoned to someone off screen and the Drs. Fenton fairly skipped into view. They hadn't changed much since Dean had last seen them; they still wore their skin-tight rubber Hazmat's suits and had way too much energy.
[Lance Thunder] Jack and Maddie Fenton, Amity Park's very own ghost experts. What are your thoughts on Inviso-Bill's extended stay in our fair city?
[Maddie Fenton] Well Lance, we-
[Jack Fenton] That Inviso-Bill! When I get my hands on him I'll rip him apart molecule by molecule!
[Maddie Fenton] Of course you will, dear. As I was saying, Lance, we believe Inviso-Bill is a very violent ghost who is right now content with only taking out his urges on others of his kind. Who knows when his violent tendencies will turn themselves on humans? Rest assured, Jack and I are working diligently to extinguish this menace once and for all! We've even got some new weapons to help us!
Jack and Maddie pulled out two very large guns that shouldn't have been able to be concealed in their teal and orange jumpsuits. Thunder backed away, eyes wide, as did the cameraman.
[Maddie Fenton] Don't worry! These are perfectly harmless against humans!
[Lance Thunder] That's what you said last time!
[Jack Fenton] BONZAI!
Jack fired his shoulder cannon into the air and a large, glowing green projectile shot out of view. A few seconds later, Thunder was covered in a pile of green goop as the projectile fell out of the sky and onto his head. He looked more annoyed and resigned than angry, raising the microphone to his mouth, making eye contact with the camera.
[Lance Thunder] Back to you, Sharon.
The video ended.
Dean's eyes were wide with shock. On the one hand, there was apparently a teenaged boy somewhere in Illinois going around and blasting warehouses to pieces. On the other hand, the Fentons were as eccentric and wild as ever. He needed some time to digest this new information.
"Can you send me that video, Ash?" Sam asked, also sitting down. Ash grunted and spun his laptop back around, clicking and clacking away. Sam turned to Dean. "So, the Fentons think this Inviso-Bill kid is a ghost? And they're hunting him?"
Dean massaged his temples. "I need a beer," he said.
"We need to go help this kid!" Sam exclaimed as Ellen plopped two beers down on the bar in front of them. Dean grabbed his, but had to hand it back to Ellen for her to open it for him since his arms still felt like lead.
"Sure sure," he said as she popped the top off and handed it back, "But first: a drink."