Monster 101
Dean did not awaken the entire night. If there were dreams, he did not remember them. He awoke at a knock at the door the next morning.
Watari was smiling, hold a tray. "Good morning, Dean."
Dean yawned softly. “It's morning? I don't remember going to sleep last night. Damn, I slept good. Bless Near.”
"I take it the meditation exercise helped?"
“I guess it did. I only remember not wanting to stop.”
He smiled. "It's a great exercise to allow the mind a chance to rest and renew." The tray was set on the table and the older man helped Dean out of bed.
“I can't remember ever waking and feeling like this. I like it.” He smiled and went to the bathroom and then headed to the table. “Well, what new thing am I gonna learn to like today?”
"We have an omelet, bagel and creamed cheese, as well as fruit."
Dean grinned, “What? Nothing new? Or does the omelet actually have meat in it? Wait, it's the tea, right?”
"Green tea," he answered with a smile. "And yes, the omelet has meat, mushrooms, vegetables, and cheese."
“Really? Oh, this is awesome. Watari, what time do lessons start today? Also, are there sessions today? Does L plan on doing them with Sam and me together?”
"Lessons begin in an hour. Allows you time to eat and clean up. I do believe L will be there."
“He's gonna take the classes? Good. He needs to.”
Watari nodded.
“Are you taking them too?”
"I will be sitting in, yes."
“I'm glad. All of you need to know what's out there. You've crossed one that I didn't even know what it was, so knowing the basics and even a little more is a good idea.”
Another nod came from Watari. "Indeed."
“Watari? Is something going on? You are not usually this talkative.”
He chuckled softly "No, I've been up for hours sifting through potential cases. I've had help but it's still a lot to go through."
Dean grinned, then looked serious. “Anything unusual?”
"The usual that I can tell."
“Yeah, but you never know. I bet you thought the last one was the usual.”
"True enough," he admitted. "I'm going to have to alter the parameters of the sifting through the cases."
“Might be a good idea. You'll know what kind of team to put together, if you widen the parameters to include the unusual.”
"L has said you will be on call if something like that comes up."
“Sam doesn't know about that. I don't want to lie to him, so I'm gonna have to talk to L about what is allowed and what's not allowed.”
He nodded. "I'm sure something can be worked out for that."
“I hope so.”
A small smile was given to the man. "I know so. This is L we're talking about."
“I know, but he said keep Sam out of the loop, but things have changed some.”
"All you have to do is talk to him."
“Oh, I'm going to. Just thought of it though. Speaking of Sam, where is he? He normally eats breakfast with me.”
Watari laughed quietly. "Matt challenged him early this morning to some sort of video game. I'm going to have to drag them apart later for class."
“Damn! I wanted to see that. Sam's not bad, you know.”
"I know but I have doubts he can hold up to Matt. We shall see. They're still at it if you want to stop and watch."
“I'm not saying Sam will win. He doesn't get to play as much as he'd like, but he'll give Matt one helluva run. I'd better make sure everything is ready. Sam was supposed to print off a bunch of stuff, but I don't know if he did it yet or not. Where are the classes going to be held?”
"He has. And L said the workroom on the top floor where he usually works will be appropriate."
“Are the papers in the room? I think I want to check it out and make sure everything is where it needs to be.”
He nodded. "They are."
“That's great. I'm gonna head on up there and get everything set up. See y'all in a while then. Thanks for the breakfast, and for the company.” Dean picked up his a second duffel and headed out the door.
"I will see you up there then," he smiled, taking the tray.
Dean hurried to the room on the top floor and started setting up designs and pictures in notebooks to be given out. He'd seen a bunch of empty notebooks in the main room and took enough of them to use.
L was already there with Near, both working on laptops. L was nibbling on a slice of cake as he worked.
Dean said good morning to them as he grabbed some of the notebooks and headed off to the back of the room for the classes.
L had waved at him, obviously intent on what he was working on, and Near greeted him politely.
The hunter searched for paper, pens, and a hole punch. He sat on the floor and began to put the notebooks together. Monsters 101, he thought.
Sam, Matt, and Mello came up a short while later, amicably bickering over video games. Watari was behind them with a tray of snacks and beverages, shaking his head at the trio.
Watching his brother interact with the two of the trio who had hated him the most, made Dean smile in relief. He went to back work on the notebooks.
The three of them sat down to help Dean, giving him a running commentary on the challenge that had gone on.
The hunter smiled, as he kept working, his mind trying to grasp the gamer terminology that made so little sense to him. The excitement all three were showing made him feel good inside. This was a side of Sammy he couldn't remember seeing much of.
"Finally, all done," Sam said, setting the binders down.
Hazel eyes twinkling, Dean looked at all three of the gamers. “Okay, now. I've listened to a rendition of the game and the play. Now, would you make one thing plain to me? Who the hell won?”
Sam made a face and pointed at Matt.
“In your defense, Sammy, how often do you get to play? Matt?”
"I play everyday..not that game all the time though," the red head told him.
“Sam?”
"Not as often."
“Matt is the superior player because he has a ton of practice gaming. Sam, you are just as good a player. You just don't have the chance to play. Matt deserved to win because he's trained more. In the classroom, in the hunting knowledge, you are the superior player. Matt will be the one who is good but hasn't had the practice. It's what you devote your time to. We're hunters. We can't game a lot. You did good for a hunter who likes to game.”
"Sam did fairly well for not playing often," Matt grinned.
“Yeah. That's my Sammy. I hope you guys had fun.”
The grins spread to the other two's faces. "Oh yeah," Sam answered. "You heal up, I'm teaching you how to play Halo with us."
“You're gonna teach halo to a marksman?” Dean asked, grinning. “I'd love to learn.”
The three younger ones grinned widely. "Deal," Mello crowed.
Dean tried to grab hold of a chair to pull himself up. He turned and looked at the three. “You do know that once I have the game figured out, you're all dead meat?” He winked and turned to pull himself, one-handed.
"We shall see," Matt laughed.
“Yeah, we will.” Dean grinned and leaned over to start picking up notebooks.
Matt and Mello picked them up for him to keep him from bending too much.
“Thanks, guys.” Dean reached for the notebooks with one arm, planning on carrying them in the curve of his arm against his chest.
"Welcome," they chimed back at him.
Dean set the notebooks on a table with pens and extra paper. He went back and grabbed the duffel and set it near a chair. He sat down a second to rest.
A cup of tea was set at Dean's elbow, this one containing a soft fruity smell.
Dean could smell the aroma and closed his eyes, inhaling it. He murmured a soft thank you as the bandaged hand lifted the cup. He took a small sip, and smiled. “I like this.”
Watari smiled. "I'm glad."
The hunter opened his eyes and looked up at the older man, “Thank you.”
"You're very welcome."
He sat and enjoyed the tea, waiting til everyone was ready.
L and Near were simply waiting for him to start, so they continued working.
Dean sighed and looked at everyone. “You guys ready?”
They nodded, setting aside the laptops for the moment to focus on Dean.
“I've been writing some stuff down for months on the stuff my Dad had in his journal, what I've picked up from Bobby, and what Sam and I have learned on our own. I can't teach it all in one lesson. I don't think you expect me to. I'll be doing these classes every other day.”
Dean waited until everyone was seated around the table and started talking. “Hunting isn't easy. Sometimes it's hard to know what's good and what's evil. Nietzsche said, “You look into the abyss, and the abyss looks back. Our job is to destroy evil, but we have to make sure it's evil. Most hunters go by their gut instinct, and people die sometimes.”
The group listened, seated close by the table so they could look at the pages when the binders were handed out.
Dean spent the next hour and a half discussing demons because Lilith was next on the agenda. He discussed things to look for, like the smell of sulfur. There would usually be a telltale amount somewhere when demons were involved. The black eyes were not hard to see but demons could hide them. He showed them the exorcism ritual he used most of the time.
Sam was practically shell shocked by the time the lesson ended. He'd known the group they were staying with were intelligent..but this..this had been beyond expectation. All of them had absorbed the contents of the binder in under half an hour and were pushing for more information.
Sam thought back over the time Dean had been teaching and his own rebellion against his brothers teaching methods. He could grin now but Dean was pissed when he intervened.
Dean was scrambling to keep ahead at times, but decided to spend some time teaching them how to look for patterns, which was the most logical way of figuring out whether you had a hunt or not.
It was obvious they were memorizing it fast and would apply it to future cases. Sam could only shake his head in sheer amazement.
The older hunter was moving, constantly writing things down, looking up things on the computers, bringing in more information on how to find patterns and interpret them. He was on his feet for two hours steadily giving ideas, pointing out possibilities, and going to the computers that held Bobby's books and finding information on questions he'd been asked. Sam was getting frustrated because he could have been doing it, but Dean's mind was going so fast trying to keep up that he was finding it quicker to do it himself. He was starting to drag, when Sam decided it was time to just take over and make big brother sit down.
Watari was right beside him. The older man knew how hard it was to keep up with his charges.
Sam had gotten up, placed his laptop on the table, turned to his brother, and said, “Thank you, Dean. I believe it's my topic now.” He turned and carried on about some difficult questions on symbols and how to interpret them. Dean's eyebrows rose and he started to move forward and say something, when Watari's hand touched his shoulder.
"Let him help," he murmured in his ear, handing him some tea and something to snack on. "He's trying to share the load equally and my wards don't take it easy on their teachers.”
Dean looked at the older man, and realized he was shaking a little. He nodded and sat down, taking the tea and snack. He suddenly felt very tired. He looked into his brother's eyes as they met for a moment and mouthed 'thank you.'
Sam simply smiled and went on with the lesson. It was unreal trying to keep up with them.
Dean finally called a halt when Sam had been at it for over an hour. The lesson had lasted way over three hours. Dean was thinking of lunch and a nap by this, deciding he must be getting old.
Near nodded, reviewing his binder as Sam took a drink of water.
Dean rose and began to put things together neatly, telling everyone the next class would be the day after tomorrow. He was tired but it was a good tired. Everyone caught on quicker then he had expected. The next lesson would have to be very in depth to keep them going. He decided that teaching styles had to change, and Sam was going to be much more involved. They could sit down tomorrow and go over what needed to be taught next, and plot it together.
He picked up the duffel that carried weapons, salt, holy water, and other items. They weren't needed this time. It crossed his mind in passing that L and Watari had left them alone as far as sessions went. He and Sam had had that one interlude that had a break through but nothing with either man. To be honest, he was relieved, but knew that sooner or later, something would come up. He was still concerned over a possible fight. He and his brother loved each other, but there were things that could ignite if given the right ignition source. He started carrying his duffel towards the exit to put it back in his room, and he murmured to Watari, that he'd be back.
Watari nodded, getting ready to put lunch together for everyone.
Dean leaned against the wall of the elevator as it went down, thinking over what Sam had done, surprised, but realizing that this was a side of his brother he hadn't seen before, yet liked.
Sam was answering questions still, struggling to keep up. Damn...he would have to talk to Dean about organizing this at a faster pace.
Dean sat down in his room for a minute, catching a breath. He needed to get back upstairs and help Sammy field questions. This class was going to be tough. No simple stuff for these students. They'd have to dig deep and teach them all they knew and maybe more.
The group was definitely keeping him on his toes, and Sam was having to dig for more details on the questions being asked. They weren't satisfied with simple answers.
Dean came back in a few minutes later, striding purposefully towards the table in the back.
“Okay, I have an assignment for you. I want each of you to research a creature of evil. I don't want a demon, a werewolf, or a vampire. Pick something you've never known much about before. You can do a striga, skinwalker, wendigo, banshee, a rakasha, or anything else that comes to mind for you. I want in depth. Find stuff that I don't know, if you can. I would normally give you a couple of weeks, but you guys are too good, so one week from today. There's thousands of Bobby's books on that mainframe in there. Have at it, guys. Oh, and no two people use the same creature.”
Mello grinned and nodded, obviously enjoying the lessons. "Got it."
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