Hopelessly Human

47. Eminence Front

[The Great Escapist]

Kevin woke up in the boat, a note still stuck to his face. He got up and stuck it onto the wall with the rest of his notes. There was a bang on the door and he approached it warily.

"Kevin!" Dean called. "Come on, it's us. Open up." He continued banging. "Bleeding out here!"

Kevin cracked the door as Dean said, "Come on man, it's me." Kevin sprayed him with water. "Now it's wet me."

"You forgot to knock. What's the point of a secret knock if you don't use it?"

"Sorry, Kevin," Sam and Natalia apologized. Kevin sprayed Sam, Dylan and Natalia with the water gun. "We got it."

Kevin took the chain off the door and Sam, Dean, Natalia and Dylan entered the room. "Got what?"

Natalia smirked lightly. "We got a tip that Crowley was shifting his earth-side operations, so we, uh, laid ourselves an awesome trap."

"And it worked," Dylan added.

Dean took the other half of the broken Demon Tablet from his bag. "We got the other half of the tablet."

"What?" Kevin asked.

"It's the light at the end of your tunnel, kid. Don't say we never got you nothing." Dean handed Kevin the tablet.

"Holy crap. Are you kidding? We can get the third trial. We can finally figure out how to close the Gates of Hell on Crowley's ass forever."

"Sounds good to me," Sam replied. "So, we digging up the other half of that thing, or what?"

"Don't need to," Kevin said, pointing to the wall of notes.

"So, uh, Special K, you keep your nose to the God-stone, we're gonna drive out and make a lotta noise a long way from here, keep the safe boat for you."

Kevin ignored him, scribbling more notes.

"We'll be back as soon as we can, okay?" Natalia said.

Kevin continued ignoring them.

Dean looked between Sam, Natalia and Dylan. "I guess he's okay." He turned to Kevin. "All right, don't forget to lock up after us."

Sam, Dean, Natalia and Dylan exited. They walked onto the pier and were engulfed by a rippling and were transported.

The four of them entered the building and transformed back into demons.

"So, it's three trials," Crowley reiterated. "Three trials and the Winchesters, and Mr. Scott, get to lock the door on me. Ha!" He turned to the first demon. "You. Fake Sam. If you're gonna tip our hand, I'll have to scrub Kevin's short-term memory again. And that's risky, so watch the patois in there."

"Patois?" Demon One asked.

"Your slang. Special K, nose to the God-stone, that's the way Dean and Natalia speak. Sam is... more basic, more sincere. Dylan is a mix between the three of them with a slight accent. Remember, I want four distinct, authentic characterizations."

"Yes, sir."

Crowley waved them off and the four demons exited. "I was born to direct."

BUNKER

Dean entered, carrying a tray of food. Sam was seated at the table, next to Dylan, huddled underneath a blanket as they looked at some documents.

Natalia handed Sam a cup of coffee while Dean set the tray in front of Sam, who pushed both away.