CYPHER

Challenge...

Dean decided on his rifle though .

For some reason even he was unaware of , Dean was keeping the bow and the new arrows he had just procured .

He forced his vest back in and stepped out of the room , ready to move .

Blade had left the pews and was standing by the church's doors now with a pistol in his hand , he quickly scanned around and noted that May and Jade were no where to be found .

Dean got off the altar and moved between the pews to look out of the glass stained windows .

Since they were stained , it would be relatively hard for anyone to see through but Dean would have no problem seeing them .

Dean looked out all the windows but saw nothing .

He was on the last window when he caught a brief flutter , he spent a second longer at the window and noticed movement from fatigues like theirs .

The strangers were all men and seemed to be working very well together , considering how they moved about in total silence .

Dean counted them again to make sure if their exact number before he headed for the door and raised up three fingers when he came close enough to Blade .

Blade shook his head because he had seen one more that Dean had not seen , lifted his hand to raise Dean's pinky too.

Now , he was raising four fingers .

They both turned around when May and Jade crept down the stairs with pistols in both their hands .

They lifted their hands to gesture that the upstairs was clear and came to join them at the doors .

Dean nodded and looked around the church again , wondering how they intended to get in.

Their only ways through were through the ceiling up and the doors down .

The ceiling was too high and too steep to be easily climbed and they were all waiting down by the doors but still the men just kept creeping around the church.

Dean watched Jade settle into the closest pew to them , relaxing a little in his seat .

He was probably really exhausted considering that he had been up through out last night and then , they had continued their long night at the mall .

They would all get some much needed shut eye once all this was over .

Hopefully, they would still be alive when it was over .

Dean spotted a darkening from one of the windows and pointed it out for Blade .

It seemed like the shadow of one of the men , they all turned to watch it but the shadow moved away almost as soon as it had gotten there .

They were just about to turn their attentions back to the door when a crash jolted all of them , they all turned hastily to the source of noise and watched as a man flew leg first through one of the windows .

He must have kicked the windows just before jumping , the sheer strength that must have taken left Dean and his teammates breathless while simultaneously waiting for the man to catch his breath .

He had little sprinkles of blood on his forehead that dropped down his face but he ignored them , leaving them to look like he had just come out of a 1900's horror movie .

He did not utilize the time they had left for him to use but instead , he pulled his gun from the holster on his waist and turned to point it at them .

The rest of his team were not behind him, as they did not also come through the window like he had done .

Dean and the others raised their own guns and received a smirk from the window breaking guy before the doors from behind them burst open too , sending them flying backward and closer to the guy that had broken the windows .

They all scrambled to turn around and observe this new entrance .

A deep chuckle resounded within the church as three men filed in , each of their rifles already pointed forward, on Dean and the others .The person that had been chuckling came forward and twirled shortly under the Halo from the roof as he kept on laughing , he seemed strangely familiar .

" Well , well . If it isn't Dean and his rag-tag crew. I hate to say this, actually I love saying this, so please put your weapons down and kick them away from you and then put your hands in the air ".

Dean put the butt of the rifle on his head as he pretended to consider , when he was satisfied he frowned .

" No ".

Jade's gun was resting at the back of the last man's head, the man lifted his hands , letting his gun fall while Blade had exposed the grenades that sat in his vest .

The men looked between all of them , it was a four on four match if they were pretending not to notice their giant , blonde Pyro .

The one in the middle chuckled some more before he turned to squarely face them .

" And here I thought we had you all cornered and surrounded ".

Dean scoffed and let his rifle sweep all around them , it stopped at the one that had broken the church's window .

He pointed at the window and then the shards that were now on the floor .

" That window was not made in this century , it is easily a relic, was breaking it really necessary ? ".

The guy that had broken it refused to say anything and just kept mute .

Dean sighed and turned around to the other three of them , he gestured for May to move forward on the man that had broken his way into the church .

Jade kicked the other man's gun away and led him to join the other guy on his knees while Blade also serenaded the third guy over to where May and Jade waited with their guns pointed at the back of those two men .

Dean walked up to the man that seemed to be their leader and took his gun out of his hands , he examined the gun briefly before he motioned for the man to join the rest of his gang on their knees .

The man seemed to have a problem with that so Dean continued story time for their sake .

" Since , you seem to know who we are ,then , you must also know that a member of my team , May , fought last night and was severely injured . We spent the last night attending to her wounds before returning here this morning , after which we went for a food run and then someone went missing ... ".

Dean paused and stopped waving his hands around , he turned to face the guy in charge .

" I am sure you get the picture , they are all exhausted and even Jade who is usually as gentle as a preschooler has suddenly become increasingly aggressive ".

As if to buttress his point , Jade pushed the butt Of the gun harder into the man's neck earning a loud ouch .

" What I am just trying to say is that , you need to tell us why you are here in lesser than two words or I will have to let them take out their anger on you ".

May brayed suddenly , surprising all of them , including Dean .

The other guy immediately turned to Dean , he looked about to speak chapters , so Dean reminded him .

" One word answers man ".

The guy blinked for a long second before he eventually nodded his head .

" What is your name ? "

" Nate ".

" Why did you break into this place ? "

" Carlos ".

" Who sent you here ? "

" Carlos ".

" Do you have a message or something from him ? Or did he send you here to do something to us ? "

Nate remained silent and only stared around .

" You can answer in more than a word ".

" Carlos asked me to intimidate you all into accepting his challenge ".

" Excuse me ? "

Nate stuck his hand inside his vest and pulled out a blue stick on note .

It had lots of wriggling on it that Dean could not make out .

He passed it to Jade who could also not make out what was written and then to Blade who squinted a little at first .

" He wants us to fight his team in a five on five match at the arena today . The winning team gets to keep the high school and have the losing team join their ranks ".

Dean grimaced , what had made Carlos interested in them ?

Even to go as far as offer up his vantage point , the school .

" Yeah , he did say the post it was meant for the blonde guy , something about how only he would be able to read it ".

Dean looked at Blade one more time ,he was quiet like yesterday .

" So , you were supposed to intimidate us into saying yes ? "

The quadruplet on the floor nodded simultaneously .

" How does that work if you are the ones on your knees ? "

May chuckled at this and Nate scowled deeply, his face suddenly lit up and after a moment, he was smirking.

" You can't say no now , we sent out the announcements already. Everyone knows what the lineup for tonight is like and if you all do not come to the Arena , we will simply bring the gauntlet here to you. We will do much more than break one window , just saying ".

Dean realized why the man had looked familiar now , he reminded him of Jimmy from his days of bartending .

That seemed like decades ago now .

Dean smirked as he lifted the butt of his gun and slammed it into Nate's face ,he spat out blood and Dean jumped back to avoid the spray .

When he looked up , they were all staring at him .

" I have wanted to do that for a long time now ".

Nate scoffed .

" We have known each other less than ten minutes ".

" Ten minutes is a long time when it is with someone as annoying as you ".

Dean nodded , agreeing with May's ideology .

" You should leave now if you have delivered your message ".

" But we did not get your reply ".

Dean's face must have been in a bigger deadpan than he thought because Nate scrambled off and headed for the door , followed by his also scrambling team .

They scrambled to push the doors open and eventually scrambled out, leaving their weapons behind .

" A gauntlet ? Tonight again ? Maybe we should just talk about this when we all have naps ? "

May must have agreed with Blade because she put the safety on her gun and ran up the stairs followed by Jade who seemed to be a zombie or at least , he was pretending to be one .

Dean watched them go, wondering when would be the right time to ask .

With how heavy his eyes were becoming , Dean gathered that any time after a nap would really be the best time .

He checked the doors one more time and purposely ignored the broken windows before going to sleep .