Hell West and Crooked - prt 3
His phone buzzed and he glanced briefly at the text. It was from Dean, they were heading out to Mossman. Castiel was with them. Could Bobby come help? Bobby text back a terse “no” and then lifted his head and found five sets of eyes looking at him for explanation.
“Right. This is what happened, I don’t give a rat’s ass if you believe me or not. I don’t have time to sit here and dwell, understood?” he asked. Five sets of eyes blinked once and waited.
“Conrad and his buddy were possessed by Demons. Hell is real, that black smoke is demon smoke. I don’t know how long Conrad was possessed. His girlfriend, Meg, she’s a demon. Dean, Sam and me, we’ve been tracking her for a while. The weird weather happening globally, the increase in missing persons, the general atmosphere of things going to hell. That’s because they are. Lucifer’s on the loose. Michael’s on the loose. Both are circling ‘round my two boys to wear them like a bad prom suit and bring on the Apocalypse. Sam and Dean, me and Castiel are thinking to put a spanner in their works. Meg and followers are Lucifer loyalists, so whatever crap she’s got going on with Conrad will be all for her Daddy. Questions?” Bobby asked.
In the stunned silence that followed he helped himself to more whiskey then got up to check whether or not Conrad and his friend were alive. They were so he cuffed them and left them lying where they’d fallen. He sat back down, poured himself another shot of whiskey and phoned Dean. He got voicemail.
“Two of Meg’s thugs paid a visit to McRory’s. Ford and his men saw the whole thing go down so filling them in. Be with you soon as I can. Tell Feathers, thanks.” Bobby hung up took another sip of whiskey and waited for the fall-out to begin.
The computer geek was the first to speak. “You’re not a priest, are you?” He asked, trying to sort the events of the last ten minutes out in his mind.
“No.” Bobby stated.
“But that was an exorcism?” Hardison wondered.
“Yes” Bobby again stated.
“Sam was the tall gawky pledge?” Hardison asked.
“Yeah, that’s Sam” Bobby’s demeanor softened a little.
“Dean was at the same place I was,” Eliot stated.
“Yes. Boys weren’t sure what angle you were chasing or whether you were on the same side,” Bobby spoke bluntly.
“Hmph, guess that explains why the interrogator thought he was insane,” Eliot mused, mulling over what had happened the last couple of days. Now that there seemed to be a greater threat than just people being greedy assholes, he settled down into resonances mode.
“What happens now? To me and my team?” Nate asked. Whether or not he believed this man wasn’t the question so much as whether or not whatever had just occurred put their lives in danger.
“You got somewhere you can all crash for a couple of days?” Bobby asked.
“My apartment” Nate replied.
“Good. I can ward it so you’ll be safe, at least until we’ve dealt with Meg,” Bobby said. He rubbed his hand across his mouth, frowned in thought and then flipped his phone open and dialed.
“It’s Bobby here Jen, gonna need five sets of your famous charms, be round later to collect them” Bobby hung up.
“Psychic I know,” He said by way of explanation and took another sip of whiskey. “Right, well show me this apartment, I’ll try and answer any further questions you have there.”
Bobby looked down at Conrad and friend. He looked over towards the barman and asked, “You got anywhere I can leave these two, gotta few questions I’d like to ask ‘em later.”
The barman came over, “McRory had a room off the cellar, hasn’t been used in a long time, but I guess it’ll do” He said handing a set of keys to Bobby, “Guess bar’s closed for the day, not much here but use what you need. I’d appreciate a robbery.”
“Good, I’ll be keeping the cash then,” Bobby quipped and picking up Conrad started to haul him into the back room. Eliot helped him. Nate and Hardison took care of the other man. Sophie and Parker followed. When Bobby unlocked the room, all five grifters rather wished they hadn’t helped Bobby with the two men. It was, to their eyes, a real torture chamber. Hardison, briefly thought he was inside one of his many video games, then he accidently brushed against an overhanging hook and realized it was all real. Even Eliot, used to being both tortured and torturer, swallowed hard.
Bobby unceremoniously dumped Conrad in the middle of the room, dead centre in the devils trap outlined on the floor. He motioned Nate and Hardison to leave their man on the floor beside him. He flicked the overhead light on and the room lit up, which did nothing to take away the feeling of having walked into a torture chamber. If anything it only made it worse.
Bobby looked around the room and chuckled to himself, “guess the rumors were true, Old Man McRory was known to be a real hardcore hunter. Nowadays, well you saw, exorcism works just as good as slicing and dicing, sometimes you even get to save the poor bastard possessed.”
“Right, Hunting 101. Ignore all the various weapons around the walls and the hooks above, I don’t even want to know what he did with those. Salt, Iron, Holy Water and silver, these are the four basic defenses used when fighting the supernatural. Salted line, no evil son-of-bitch can cross over. Iron will dispel ghosts and burn most supernatural things. Holy Water burns demons and anything else Hell-spawned. Won’t necessarily send ‘em backing but gives you time to lay salt line or circle. Silver, good for werewolves, skinwalkers, shapeshifters, ghouls; most things, now I think of it.”
While Bobby was talking he moved about the room. He secured Conrad and friend to two chairs. He examined the various knives, cleavers, binding handcuffs and chains as well as several crossbows. Finally he came to the gun-cupboard and unlocking it took out everything it contained. There wasn’t much ammo to be found, but then he saw the cupboard was on wheels and moving it found a small alcove furnished with re-loading gear and supplies. Dipping a finger here and there he found the gunpowder and shot well preserved. It was only then that he turned back to the grifters. Four looked horrified and Eliot looked impressed.
“Yeah, not sure I completely buy what you’re selling, but not for nothing is this a sweet set-up.” He said.
“Good, you can start making salt-shot. Same process as normal shot but use rock-salt instead of buck-shot. Won’t hurt a person, other than nasty bruising, but knock most supernatural out” Bobby explained and sat Eliot down to work in the re-loading alcove.
“Rest of you,” His phone buzzed and he checked the text, Jenny had decided to come to him instead, “Come with me.”
Returning once more to the barroom, Bobby greeted a petite brunette. She handed him a bag and then with a hug they parted and she left the bar.
Bobby came back to the grifters and tipped out the contents of the bag. There were five pieces of jewelry, three armbands and two necklaces. All looked to be made of silver and the necklaces had two pendants hanging from them. The armbands had a series of knots woven into their design.
“These are anti-possession charms. Might not be to your liking but I need you all to wear them until this thing is over. What you do with them afterwards is up to you,” Bobby explained, “Ladies, would you like to choose first?”
Parker and Sophie looked at each other, then at the jewelry. Sophie didn’t like any of the bracelets and chose what she thought was the least offensive necklace. She put it on with some trepidation, but it did nothing weird and actually felt quite nice, even if it was a bit chunkier than her usual jewelry.
Parker simply closed her eyes and randomly chose. She slipped the bracelet on and was surprised to find it fit snuggly around her wrist. It even looked pretty.
Hardison and Nate took the other armbands, leaving Eliot the necklace. If they thought Eliot would be angry or complain, they were in for disappointment. The hitter just shrugged and placed the necklace over his head then pulled the collar of his t-shirt up so it didn’t get in the way.
They left Eliot re-loading bullets and made their way up to Nate’s apartment. Bobby got on with the job of warding the apartment. Sophie and Parker found themselves sorting out the sleeping arrangements. While Nate and Parker set up a make-shift control-room.
As he went about warding the apartment. Bobby wondered what kind of a fight Dean and Sam were battling, and whether Skinny and Two Bob were alright. Castiel he didn’t worry so much about, he’d be with Dean and Sam.
***
Skinny and Two Bob saw demon smoke exiting the windows of the Mossman Research Facility and knew it was time to split. There was a reason the van was parked were it had been, right above a manhole leading down into the storm water system. From there, they could follow the storm drain either uphill or downhill until the next manhole exit. Both these, conveniently, opened under another two nondescript cars.
Meg’s demons materialized by the side of the surveillance van in time for Two Bob to set off the remote detonated bomb attached to its chassis. Blown to smithereens, it gave Skinny and Two Bob enough time to make it safely to their cars and speed away into the night.
The demons returned to the military base, Meg got them new meat-suits and then sent them to help the others deal with Sam and Dean.
Meanwhile she took two of the more senior ranked soldier demons and made her way to the administration building and Conrad’s office.
***
“You okay, Sammy?” Dean huffed, scrambling to his feet and returning punches with one of the veterans from Zilgram’s PTSD experiment.
“Fine,” Sam grunted pushing the body of a demon off, Ruby’s knife held tightly in his hand. Another demon attacked, knocking Sam back and making him drop the knife.
Sam rolled so that his legs took out the attacking demon and they scuffled on the floor for a couple of minutes. Sam managed to kick the demon away from him and grab Ruby’s knife just in time. The demon came back with a broken chair leg and as he brought it down to stab Sam, Sam bought the knife up and stabbed him in the stomach. The make-shift stake gashed his fore-arm as the demon collapsed next to the first demon.
Dean finally got the best of the demon vet and a third body slumped to the floor. His phone rang. “Dean? It’s Skinny, shit hit the fan, me and Two Bob split. Gotta grab some stuff, probably more demons on the way to you. Get to you, soon as we can,” Skinny only paused for breath when he hung up. Dean rolled his eyes, “Skinny says we’re about to have company.”
Sure enough, just as Dean slipped the cell back into his shirt pocket, the first of three demons burst through the door. Sam threw Ruby’s knife, the blade pierced the demons chest and he went down. The two following launched themselves on Dean and Sam. Twice, Dean and Sam thought they were beaten, but in the end, they somehow managed to throw the demon soldiers off balance long enough for Dean to grab Ruby’s knife and kill the one Sam held before killing the last demon standing.
“Hell, anymore of the bastards?” Dean grunted in pain. He lent against the wall catching his breath. Sam doing the same on the opposite wall. A rustle of feathers and a deep voice answering, “No. The rest are with Meg at the military base and Mossman Research Facility.” Told him Castiel had arrived.
“Your timing, as usual, sucks Cas,” he said. Sam coughed and wiped away blood from his split-lip.
“Skinny and Two Bob, you know if they are alright?” Sam asked the angel. Cas placed his hand on Dean’s shoulder as he replied, healing the various cuts, broken ribs and bruises Dean had gotten during the fight.
“As far as I am aware, yes, they are alright,” Cas came over to Sam and lay a healing hand upon his shoulder. Sam felt the battle wounds right themselves. It was a stange feeling, something he was sure he’d never get used to, he wondered if Dean felt the same.
“Good. Now what do we do about this mess?” Dean looked around the debris of the room. While he did, the furniture repaired itself and the six demon bodies evaporated.
“Guess that solved that problem,” Sam said with a smile. Dean glared at Cas, “You know you can’t keep using your mojo for everything, Cas. You’ll fall -“
Dean stopped himself from berating the angel. Castiel wouldn’t stop being an angel until he, well, stopped being an angel. Best that Dean and Sam could do was to try and make sure he didn’t over-extend his powers on everyday things. Which was like trying to turn a Yaris into an Impala. Impossible.
“We’d better get over to Bobby and those grifters, the old fashioned way, Cas, driving,” Dean stated.
Sam laughed, earning himself an indignant glare from Dean.
Castiel just nodded and answered, “yes, Dean.”
***
prt 4