When Worlds Collide

Chapter 2

Things had been going reasonably well since The Fall.  The supernatural realm, the Winchesters thought, needed a bit to gather their strength after such an unbelievable event, and the hunters were glad for the slack.  No doubt all hell would be raised soon (knowing their luck, probably literally), but for now the new Winchester family got to breathe.  

After so long by themselves, the experience of sharing a (hopefully) permanent living situation with two other people felt rather odd to Sam and Dean.  Sam would go to research something to find that Kevin already had five websites on the topic. Dean would palm the keys of the Impala to find Cas right behind him, ready for a grocery run.  It was fighting over the TV remote, constantly losing one object or another, much more laundry, movie nights and crowded road trips.  For a while, the four could almost believe they were normal - except for the fact they had a demon king trapped in their basement.  

Cas was finding it difficult to adjust to his new humanity, though.  While it was funny for the other WInchesters, Cas didn’t find the taste of toothpaste amusing - or the pain of hunger, or the need to shower so often.  But the newest thing to Castiel was hunting - real hunting, not just jumping in to the save the Winchesters’ sorry hides at the last second.  Covertly, he’d been searching for a case, using techniques he’d picked up from Sam over the years.  Finally, in the darkest corners of the Internet, he thought he found something.

“Dean?” Castiel mumbled quietly, his eyebrows scrunched up as he stared at the computer screen.  

“Hmm?” Dean looked over the room whilst holding the TV remote out of Kevin’s reach.  “Whatcha need, Cas?”

“Um…” the ex-angel looked up.  “...I think… I may have found a case.”

Dean’s eyebrows skyrocketed.  Kevin used this opportunity to jump off a nearby chair and snatch the remote from the eldest Winchester’s hands.  “Wha - ? Dammit Cas, now we have to watch CSI Miami.”  Chuckling under his breath, he joined Castiel at the computer. “What do you think it is?”

“Uh…” he searched his brain for a name as Dean’s head came to rest on his shoulder, his forearm snaking around his neck. “...Demonic aliens?”

Dean snorted, then cleared his throat, careful to be supportive of Cas’ attempts to practice hunting.  “Uh, what makes you say that?”

Cas nodded at the screen.  There, from Kevin’s fake login on a government website, lay one of the weirdest photos Dean had ever seen.  A man, with long black hair, sporting what appeared to be a gold antler-helmet, green robes, a glowy-pointy-staff thing that Sam would probably know the name of - and the trademark obsidian eyes of a demon.  

“Well, his fashion taste is… otherwordly, I’ll give him that,” Dean said absentmindedly, scrolling through the other pictures.  “What’s with the glowstick?”

“Not sure… but check this out.”  Cas played a video, presumably security camera footage.  Antler Boy seemed to be having a rather intense talk with a few men that Dean mentally nicknamed Eyepatch Dude, Robin Hood, and Baldie.

“That’s Dr Erik Selvic,” Cas pointed to Baldie.  “He’s a scientist working with the.. the… the blue cubic device, right there in the middle. He called it a Tesseract.”

“Looks like the same stuff that’s in the Glowstick,” Dean mumbled.  

“Yes, but that isn’t the point.  Watch this.” On screen, Antler Boy pressed the scepter into the chest of Robin Hood.  Cas froze the video and zoomed in as far as he could, then played it.  Dean drew a sharp breath; the archer’s eyes momentarily turned pitch black.  

Cas smiled triumphantly.  “See?”