09x08 - Salty Dog - Part Two: Omens
Episode Number: 09x08 of Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Salty Dog
Subtitle: Omens
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 2,193
Rating: R
Warnings: language, violence
Status: Complete.
Sam marked out the events around Tok, Alaska to see if they'd match up with those from Maine and New Mexico. He didn't know what to look for. Demonic omens usually presented as crop failures, freak weather events, or even a rise in local crime. With no demons left on the planet, however, he wasn't sure if anything would herald supernatural events.
"Woah," Sam whispered.
His eyes raked over the data again. Hail storms, then forest fires, then a sequence of tornadoes. Each area also had associated mutant births, such as snakes with two heads or puppies with three tails. For a week before the monster dogs appeared, nature went completely out of whack.
Sam built an alert monitor given the events as general parameters. As soon as he finished the profile, he got a response.
"Holy crap! Dean!" Sam yelled to the kitchen.
"What?"
"Pack a bag!"
Catacomb Island, North Pole. Castiel stood on a forsaken piece of rock in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
"This should not be here," the angel remarked.
"That's why no one's ever found this place," Kuravi said. "The catacombs are below."
"You are certain this is where you were held captive?"
"I am certain," she replied. "When I was first lured to this place, the Pole Star was different." She looked up at the sky, as if attempting to recreate that moment.
"My power is diminished here," Castiel commented.
"Mine as well."
"Where are the other prisoners?"
"Below, in the catacombs," Kuravi explained. "Here, let me take you there."
Fire and ash bloomed over the frozen island as they disappeared below.
Dean sat behind the wheel with Sam riding shotgun.
"Where're we headed?"
"Abbeville, South Carolina," Sam said mechanically.
"I get it, you're pissed with me," Dean said, "but I need to know, do you know what Cas is working on?"
"No, he just told me he needed to do some research."
"Didn't you ask?"
Sam laughed scornfully. "Seriously Dean?"
"Seriously, Sam," Dean snapped, "his life is on the line every second he's out in the open."
"Then maybe you should call him and make up with him."
"So you're saying you just don't care about him at all now?"
"No, I'm saying I'm done being your middleman. Stop acting like an idiot and call him."
"I think you should know, then, that - "
"Benny's alive and at the badlands cabin you set up for him?" Sam completed. "Cas told me."
"I planned to," Dean said curtly.
"You know what? Never mind," Sam said, "I don't tell you everything, why should you?"
"You don't?"
"No, I don't."
"Okay, let's, uh, focus on the case," Dean deflected. "You got a handle on what we're dealing with?"
"No, and the other hunters didn't bother to figure out what these things are."
"Fire, silver, headshots," Dean listed. "That's basically a monster mash, right?"
"I guess."
Uncomfortable silence filled the car.
Scott hauled his truck into the lcoal repair shop in Tok. Enormous mutant dogs were one thing, but the flamethrowers wrecked the bed of the truck, the tires, and even the paint job along one side. Clearly the hunters that enlisted him understood this, having pinned a thousand extra dollars to his sun visor before they left town.
"Do I even want to ask?" Tammy, the shop's owner, asked when she laid eyes on Scott's truck.
"Let's just say, I got more than I bargained for," Scott said. "Can you give me good news?"
"I can fix her, sure. Give me at least three days."
"I can handle that."
"One of my boys'll give you a lift home," she insisted. "Overhead lights are crap out here at night, don't want you hit by a car before you can pay me."
Before Scott had a chance to reply, he heard a high howl. It wasn't a wolf or a dog. The sound made his heart freeze.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," Tammy said.
A huge gash appeared across her stomach and chest. Her insides spilled out as she screamed.
Scott ran, trying to get out of the garage, but he didn't even make it three steps before an invisible force fell upon him, slicing through his flesh.
Sam slept like a rock while Dean tossed over and over again in the cheap sheets of his motel bed.
He wanted to reach out to Cas, to check in with him, to say he was an idiot and he's sorry. But Naomi had been clear; she wasn't about to lift her heavenly hit on Cas, which meant Dean would have to wait a little longer.
Part of him was ready to blurt his conversation with Metatron through a prayer, but he waited. That was the kind of discussion you had face to face.
The last few days bogged Dean down. He missed Cas. He had missed Sam while they were apart, but now that he was back on a case with him, he wanted to cut and run. He resented dealing with Sam's disappointment and bitch attitude. Dean's guilt over it all wasn't make it any easier.
But none of that changed the fact that they had super-monsters tearing people apart all over the country. So he'd have to suck it up and just deal.
Dean rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. Either he was going to fall asleep, or he was going to suffocate.
The next morning at a local diner in Abbeville, Sam waited patiently for Dean, who insisted on gathering several "Kittens with two tails for adoption" posters before they ate.
"This is whacked," Dean said as he dropped one of the posters on the table. "One cat has three tails. Three."
"That's not good. I thought we had more time."
Dean motioned to the waiter. "Care to elaborate?" he said to his brother.
"Can I help you?" the waiter asked.
"Yes, uh," Sam spotted his name take, "John. I'll have a coffee, black, and the silver stack. Side of bacon."
"Orange juice, coffee, and steak and eggs with the ham and bacon side," Dean added. "Thanks."
John took their order and left.
"The last sign before the mega-pups appeared was the animals with too many heads or tails."
"Too many heads? Seriously?"
"Yep."
"Any insight on what we're up against?"
"Since yesterday? No," Sam said. "I'm thinking we're dealing with something new."
"New monsters?" Dean inquired sarcastically. "Come on, Sam, the last time we met a new monster was that conworm thing that Eve made."
"There's a reason Garth dialed us in a panic," Sam pointed out. "It's not like he doesn't have all of Bobby's info up in his head."
"We've got Bobby's info," Dean corrected.
"You know what I mean."
They both stopped as John delivered their food and coffee with a simple, "Enjoy."
"Thanks," Dean said, grabbing his fork.
Once the waiter cleared, Dean continued, "I was looking at those photos in the files Garth sent. You know what they made me think of?"
"Ghouls?"
"That Jersey-Devil-Crazy-Guy," Dean replied. "Look, ghouls chow down on already-dead things. Wendigos and leviathan, they eat and don't leave leftovers. No missing hearts, so that eliminates most of the other monsters. Maybe some of Dick's special sauce is still out there and someone's tapped into it."
"And fed it to dogs?" Sam asked, "Then let them all loose on the same night?"
"Eat your damn pancakes."
Avaida opened the office door and waited for approval before entering.
"You have news?" Naomi asked.
"Yes," Avaida said.
Naomi listened to the angel's latest reports with dread on her face. "We'll need to assign two people to the prophet, quietly. He won't like the angels following him, but we can't take the risk."
"Invisible assignment?"
"Yes, don't disturb his daily routine," Naomi explained. "Reports every half hour."
"Would you like me to return to my post?"
"Yes, for now Avaida, thank you."
In the motel room, Sam mapped the events, looking for some kind of nexus of the supernatural activity.
He jolted when Castiel appeared.
"Hello Sam," he said pleasantly.
"Cas, damn it," Sam replied. "Look, you and Dean need to figure out how to be around each other - "
"That's not why I'm here, and I don't have much time."
"Okay."
"You said you could see hellhounds?"
"Uh, yeah, through objects scorched with holy fire, we have some glasses - "
Cas waved his hand and suddenly had Dean's large plastic glasses in his palm. "May I borrow these?" he asked.
"Of course, but - "
"I'm sorry, I'll contact you as soon as possible."
The flutter of wings echoed as the angel disappeared.
Dean shoved the door open and dropped a bag of burgers on the table next to Sam's computer.
"I found a half dozen other places with mutant animals," Dean tossed his brother a map with starred locations. "Some people said they'd seen two-headed lizards, not sure if I believe them, but since they're not pets - "
" - they'd be hard to track," Sam completed. "We might have enough to figure out the center of everything."
"You think?"
"And, uh, Cas dropped in."
"He did?"
"Yeah, asking about hellhounds."
Dean gaped at Sam. "Sorry, I must've misheard you, I thought you said hellhounds."
Sam shrugged, "He borrowed your x-ray specs."
"Didn't he elaborate?" Dean demanded.
"He didn't have a lot of time. He said he'd update us when he got a chance."
"So, what, Cas is off finding hellhounds?" Dean paced. "What kind of sense does that make?"
"Maybe a lot of sense. You said it this morning, the bodies these things leave behind are all wrong. Add in demonic omens cropping up for the first time in months. Color me crazy, but maybe Cas is onto something."
"Garth said hunters could see them, and kill them with just silver bullets and fire."
"That's true, they're more like werewolves than hellhounds, which probably means..." Sam started rambling out loud. By the time he got to the topic of genetic hybridization, Dean's brain felt like it was trying to make a break for it out his left ear.
"Sam, Sammy!" Dean interrupted. "Can you give me the non-nerd-pro-quo here?"
Holding back his desire to correct his brother, Sam said, "You can't just drag demons back on earth. Otherwise, people would summon them. Closing the gates banished them from crossing into this plane, so they've gotta make hybrids."
"Demonic hybrids?"
"That's my best guess. Maybe hellhound/werewolf, or even hellhound/shifter, I don't know."
"So this can't just be PCP werewolves?"
"Dean."
"Right, sorry. Reality."
Castiel touched down in Tok outside the repair shop. He examined the mangled corpses and the ruined vehicles before he followed the tracks. Hellhounds were never very subtle animals, but the glasses he borrowed from Sam revealed everything to him. He kept so focused on his task that he forgot the world. He didn't notice that someone followed him.
As Cas pushed into the woods, he followed a trail that led him to a clearing full of blood. He made a mental note to tell Dean that a grizzly bear could indeed be beaten by something; the hellhounds had made short work of it.
He heard a rustle in the leaves. They were nearby. He drew his blade and waited, trying to anticipate their point of attack. He couldn't be sure, but from what he'd seen, there must be two hounds nearby.
No, three hounds. He heard them circling. Hellhounds usually had a master, a demon who kept on a leash, but these were free, like wild animals. Castiel did not like the implications.
Two hounds howled to the south and east, but neither approached him. Instead, the third raced from the north. The dog didn't flinch when the angel faced it head on.
As the hellhound leapt for his neck, he calmly plunged the blade into the beast's throat, sidestepping the attack with ease. The other two hounds bounded towards him from east and west, and he impaled one through the heart. The remaining dog latched its claws into Castiel's vessel and tore down, leaving a gapping wound from shoulder to thigh.
Before it could shift its weight, the angel thrust the blade into its neck, nearly decapitating it.
Castiel threw the sputtering mutt of his arm and healed his vessel. He gathered the remains and burned them. He waited with the fire, just to be certain no more hounds were nearby. He'd been surprised in Maine when the black sheep of the pack snuck up on him. He wasn't about to let that happen again.
He felt uneasy, like something was wrong, or someone was watching him. Either way, he promised Sam that he'd return, so he took in his surroundings, and when he found them empty, the angel vanished.
Naomi had observed everything, not from her high post, but from the earth, standing invisibly on solid ground. Whatever her feelings towards Castiel, he was an excellent soldier. She couldn't figure out how he was able to see the hounds of hell, but she assumed it had something to do with the Winchesters. It always seemed to anyway.
She took a sample of the ash for tests, then followed Cas's trail.
<<< Previous Part:
Part One: Plan B
Next Part: >>>
Part Three: Transmigration of Souls
Primary Post: 09x08 Salty Dog
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)
Title: Salty Dog
Subtitle: Omens
Author: dracox-serdriel
Word Count: 2,193
Rating: R
Warnings: language, violence
Status: Complete.
Sam marked out the events around Tok, Alaska to see if they'd match up with those from Maine and New Mexico. He didn't know what to look for. Demonic omens usually presented as crop failures, freak weather events, or even a rise in local crime. With no demons left on the planet, however, he wasn't sure if anything would herald supernatural events.
"Woah," Sam whispered.
His eyes raked over the data again. Hail storms, then forest fires, then a sequence of tornadoes. Each area also had associated mutant births, such as snakes with two heads or puppies with three tails. For a week before the monster dogs appeared, nature went completely out of whack.
Sam built an alert monitor given the events as general parameters. As soon as he finished the profile, he got a response.
"Holy crap! Dean!" Sam yelled to the kitchen.
"What?"
"Pack a bag!"
Catacomb Island, North Pole. Castiel stood on a forsaken piece of rock in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.
"This should not be here," the angel remarked.
"That's why no one's ever found this place," Kuravi said. "The catacombs are below."
"You are certain this is where you were held captive?"
"I am certain," she replied. "When I was first lured to this place, the Pole Star was different." She looked up at the sky, as if attempting to recreate that moment.
"My power is diminished here," Castiel commented.
"Mine as well."
"Where are the other prisoners?"
"Below, in the catacombs," Kuravi explained. "Here, let me take you there."
Fire and ash bloomed over the frozen island as they disappeared below.
Dean sat behind the wheel with Sam riding shotgun.
"Where're we headed?"
"Abbeville, South Carolina," Sam said mechanically.
"I get it, you're pissed with me," Dean said, "but I need to know, do you know what Cas is working on?"
"No, he just told me he needed to do some research."
"Didn't you ask?"
Sam laughed scornfully. "Seriously Dean?"
"Seriously, Sam," Dean snapped, "his life is on the line every second he's out in the open."
"Then maybe you should call him and make up with him."
"So you're saying you just don't care about him at all now?"
"No, I'm saying I'm done being your middleman. Stop acting like an idiot and call him."
"I think you should know, then, that - "
"Benny's alive and at the badlands cabin you set up for him?" Sam completed. "Cas told me."
"I planned to," Dean said curtly.
"You know what? Never mind," Sam said, "I don't tell you everything, why should you?"
"You don't?"
"No, I don't."
"Okay, let's, uh, focus on the case," Dean deflected. "You got a handle on what we're dealing with?"
"No, and the other hunters didn't bother to figure out what these things are."
"Fire, silver, headshots," Dean listed. "That's basically a monster mash, right?"
"I guess."
Uncomfortable silence filled the car.
Scott hauled his truck into the lcoal repair shop in Tok. Enormous mutant dogs were one thing, but the flamethrowers wrecked the bed of the truck, the tires, and even the paint job along one side. Clearly the hunters that enlisted him understood this, having pinned a thousand extra dollars to his sun visor before they left town.
"Do I even want to ask?" Tammy, the shop's owner, asked when she laid eyes on Scott's truck.
"Let's just say, I got more than I bargained for," Scott said. "Can you give me good news?"
"I can fix her, sure. Give me at least three days."
"I can handle that."
"One of my boys'll give you a lift home," she insisted. "Overhead lights are crap out here at night, don't want you hit by a car before you can pay me."
Before Scott had a chance to reply, he heard a high howl. It wasn't a wolf or a dog. The sound made his heart freeze.
"You look like you've seen a ghost," Tammy said.
A huge gash appeared across her stomach and chest. Her insides spilled out as she screamed.
Scott ran, trying to get out of the garage, but he didn't even make it three steps before an invisible force fell upon him, slicing through his flesh.
Sam slept like a rock while Dean tossed over and over again in the cheap sheets of his motel bed.
He wanted to reach out to Cas, to check in with him, to say he was an idiot and he's sorry. But Naomi had been clear; she wasn't about to lift her heavenly hit on Cas, which meant Dean would have to wait a little longer.
Part of him was ready to blurt his conversation with Metatron through a prayer, but he waited. That was the kind of discussion you had face to face.
The last few days bogged Dean down. He missed Cas. He had missed Sam while they were apart, but now that he was back on a case with him, he wanted to cut and run. He resented dealing with Sam's disappointment and bitch attitude. Dean's guilt over it all wasn't make it any easier.
But none of that changed the fact that they had super-monsters tearing people apart all over the country. So he'd have to suck it up and just deal.
Dean rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. Either he was going to fall asleep, or he was going to suffocate.
The next morning at a local diner in Abbeville, Sam waited patiently for Dean, who insisted on gathering several "Kittens with two tails for adoption" posters before they ate.
"This is whacked," Dean said as he dropped one of the posters on the table. "One cat has three tails. Three."
"That's not good. I thought we had more time."
Dean motioned to the waiter. "Care to elaborate?" he said to his brother.
"Can I help you?" the waiter asked.
"Yes, uh," Sam spotted his name take, "John. I'll have a coffee, black, and the silver stack. Side of bacon."
"Orange juice, coffee, and steak and eggs with the ham and bacon side," Dean added. "Thanks."
John took their order and left.
"The last sign before the mega-pups appeared was the animals with too many heads or tails."
"Too many heads? Seriously?"
"Yep."
"Any insight on what we're up against?"
"Since yesterday? No," Sam said. "I'm thinking we're dealing with something new."
"New monsters?" Dean inquired sarcastically. "Come on, Sam, the last time we met a new monster was that conworm thing that Eve made."
"There's a reason Garth dialed us in a panic," Sam pointed out. "It's not like he doesn't have all of Bobby's info up in his head."
"We've got Bobby's info," Dean corrected.
"You know what I mean."
They both stopped as John delivered their food and coffee with a simple, "Enjoy."
"Thanks," Dean said, grabbing his fork.
Once the waiter cleared, Dean continued, "I was looking at those photos in the files Garth sent. You know what they made me think of?"
"Ghouls?"
"That Jersey-Devil-Crazy-Guy," Dean replied. "Look, ghouls chow down on already-dead things. Wendigos and leviathan, they eat and don't leave leftovers. No missing hearts, so that eliminates most of the other monsters. Maybe some of Dick's special sauce is still out there and someone's tapped into it."
"And fed it to dogs?" Sam asked, "Then let them all loose on the same night?"
"Eat your damn pancakes."
Avaida opened the office door and waited for approval before entering.
"You have news?" Naomi asked.
"Yes," Avaida said.
Naomi listened to the angel's latest reports with dread on her face. "We'll need to assign two people to the prophet, quietly. He won't like the angels following him, but we can't take the risk."
"Invisible assignment?"
"Yes, don't disturb his daily routine," Naomi explained. "Reports every half hour."
"Would you like me to return to my post?"
"Yes, for now Avaida, thank you."
In the motel room, Sam mapped the events, looking for some kind of nexus of the supernatural activity.
He jolted when Castiel appeared.
"Hello Sam," he said pleasantly.
"Cas, damn it," Sam replied. "Look, you and Dean need to figure out how to be around each other - "
"That's not why I'm here, and I don't have much time."
"Okay."
"You said you could see hellhounds?"
"Uh, yeah, through objects scorched with holy fire, we have some glasses - "
Cas waved his hand and suddenly had Dean's large plastic glasses in his palm. "May I borrow these?" he asked.
"Of course, but - "
"I'm sorry, I'll contact you as soon as possible."
The flutter of wings echoed as the angel disappeared.
Dean shoved the door open and dropped a bag of burgers on the table next to Sam's computer.
"I found a half dozen other places with mutant animals," Dean tossed his brother a map with starred locations. "Some people said they'd seen two-headed lizards, not sure if I believe them, but since they're not pets - "
" - they'd be hard to track," Sam completed. "We might have enough to figure out the center of everything."
"You think?"
"And, uh, Cas dropped in."
"He did?"
"Yeah, asking about hellhounds."
Dean gaped at Sam. "Sorry, I must've misheard you, I thought you said hellhounds."
Sam shrugged, "He borrowed your x-ray specs."
"Didn't he elaborate?" Dean demanded.
"He didn't have a lot of time. He said he'd update us when he got a chance."
"So, what, Cas is off finding hellhounds?" Dean paced. "What kind of sense does that make?"
"Maybe a lot of sense. You said it this morning, the bodies these things leave behind are all wrong. Add in demonic omens cropping up for the first time in months. Color me crazy, but maybe Cas is onto something."
"Garth said hunters could see them, and kill them with just silver bullets and fire."
"That's true, they're more like werewolves than hellhounds, which probably means..." Sam started rambling out loud. By the time he got to the topic of genetic hybridization, Dean's brain felt like it was trying to make a break for it out his left ear.
"Sam, Sammy!" Dean interrupted. "Can you give me the non-nerd-pro-quo here?"
Holding back his desire to correct his brother, Sam said, "You can't just drag demons back on earth. Otherwise, people would summon them. Closing the gates banished them from crossing into this plane, so they've gotta make hybrids."
"Demonic hybrids?"
"That's my best guess. Maybe hellhound/werewolf, or even hellhound/shifter, I don't know."
"So this can't just be PCP werewolves?"
"Dean."
"Right, sorry. Reality."
Castiel touched down in Tok outside the repair shop. He examined the mangled corpses and the ruined vehicles before he followed the tracks. Hellhounds were never very subtle animals, but the glasses he borrowed from Sam revealed everything to him. He kept so focused on his task that he forgot the world. He didn't notice that someone followed him.
As Cas pushed into the woods, he followed a trail that led him to a clearing full of blood. He made a mental note to tell Dean that a grizzly bear could indeed be beaten by something; the hellhounds had made short work of it.
He heard a rustle in the leaves. They were nearby. He drew his blade and waited, trying to anticipate their point of attack. He couldn't be sure, but from what he'd seen, there must be two hounds nearby.
No, three hounds. He heard them circling. Hellhounds usually had a master, a demon who kept on a leash, but these were free, like wild animals. Castiel did not like the implications.
Two hounds howled to the south and east, but neither approached him. Instead, the third raced from the north. The dog didn't flinch when the angel faced it head on.
As the hellhound leapt for his neck, he calmly plunged the blade into the beast's throat, sidestepping the attack with ease. The other two hounds bounded towards him from east and west, and he impaled one through the heart. The remaining dog latched its claws into Castiel's vessel and tore down, leaving a gapping wound from shoulder to thigh.
Before it could shift its weight, the angel thrust the blade into its neck, nearly decapitating it.
Castiel threw the sputtering mutt of his arm and healed his vessel. He gathered the remains and burned them. He waited with the fire, just to be certain no more hounds were nearby. He'd been surprised in Maine when the black sheep of the pack snuck up on him. He wasn't about to let that happen again.
He felt uneasy, like something was wrong, or someone was watching him. Either way, he promised Sam that he'd return, so he took in his surroundings, and when he found them empty, the angel vanished.
Naomi had observed everything, not from her high post, but from the earth, standing invisibly on solid ground. Whatever her feelings towards Castiel, he was an excellent soldier. She couldn't figure out how he was able to see the hounds of hell, but she assumed it had something to do with the Winchesters. It always seemed to anyway.
She took a sample of the ash for tests, then followed Cas's trail.
<<< Previous Part:
Part One: Plan B
Next Part: >>>
Part Three: Transmigration of Souls
Primary Post: 09x08 Salty Dog
Primary Post: Season 9 Fan Fiction (S9FF)