Blaze of Glory

Black Hole Sun

Dean pulled out his gun as they parked their trucks in the middle of the crumbling asphalt road. The buildings in this area were chared and the exposed metal frames were warped from the heat of some long dropped bombs. He was vaguely aware of Alfie hovering nearby, and Castiel was at his side, holding a machete in one hand and a pistol in the other. It was a bit odd, to see the angel looking so...human. Of course, that's what he was, but he wondered what his Castiel, the one from his time would say about the future version of him.

"You ready, Deano?" Charlie asked. "We've got to travel down four blocks to the Don Chisholm Building. Apparently, the whole area is swimming with Croats, because it's right inbetween the two hospitals. So...fun times," she said with a grin. Dean responded with a grimace. Sure, it might be fun. If he was a psychopath. He sighed and grabbed the long dagger Charlie offered him.

"Ready as I'll ever be. Just..." Dean looked at all of the people he barely knew but somehow felt responsible for. "don't die, okay?"

"We're gonna do our best, Dean," Benny said in his thick accent. Was he always so serious? As they began to walk slowly down the moonlit streets, Dean grabbed Alfie's arm and pulled him away from the rest of the group.

"Look, you're the only one here who has your mojo, so I'm gonna tell you once and only once that if any of these people die, and you had the chance to save them, I'll kill you myself," Dean said to Alfie. The angel shot him a dirty look.

"Dean, you were brought to this future by an angel, an angel can just as quickly bring you back out," Alfie said seriously. He was still glaring at Dean, but then he looked over at the group and his expression softened quite a bit. "But I'll do what I can, even though I'm not supposed to reveal that I still have my grace."

"Okay, thanks," Dean mumbled. He wasn't going to bother fighting over the threat at the beginning, what with the fact that Alfie was probably right. But then again, didn't he want to go back to his time? He glanced over to where Castiel was trying to teach Kevin how to hold a machete correctly. He had to at least try to save this future before he went back to his. He was about to rejoin the group when suddenly he heard loud footsteps. He turned and saw a group of about twenty Croats running toward them at breakneck speed. Dean shoved his gun back in his holster. The noise would just draw more. The first one to reach him was quickly dispatched with a blade to the throat. He pulled out the blade at the same time as another grabbed his arm. He spun around, attempting to shake it free, but found someone else was in the process of dealing with the Croat.

Risa drove a blade through the Croat's skull just as it attempted to take a bite out of Dean. He mouthed a thank you, which she responded to with a wink before splitting off to help Kevin who was trying and failing to deal with six separate Croats. Dean turned to his other side to find Castiel slicing through Croats like butter. Damn had the angel changed a lot. Behind Castiel, Charlie had a hold of one Croat by the neck and was trying to get a hold of her knife when another one grabbed her by the shoulders from behind, going for the neck. The Croat's teeth were millimeters away from taking a chunk out of her neck when the Croat's head exploded. She yelped in surprise, and then stabbed the other one through the skull.

In the following seconds call the Croats were brought down and the group was standing together, covered in blood and panting, but alive and unscathed. Dean sighed and checked each of the group members for bites, and finding none, gestured for them to continue on.  Charlie fell into step beside him and blinked.

"What just happened? That Croat behind me..." Charlie trailed off. "Castiel doesn't have his grace, right?" 

"No," Dean said. "I don't know what happened, Charlie. Maybe it's something going on with the Croats." He didn't exactly want to out Alfie before absolutely necessary. He was starting to take a liking for the weird Weiner Hut angel boy.