The Universe's Mixer

Jesse did the inviting. He was the only one - that Dinah and Dean knew of - who knew everyone who was to be involved in this. The invite also only really went out to Dinah directly. It felt awkward trying to contact Dean to ask him to come along. But he suggested to Dinah that she might want to bring him, since he was right there anyway.

Not knowing, of course, what had happened with the apartment.

He had not gone out to do any do-gooding, and made sure to be rested. Mostly because he didn't want to disappoint Zoe again, and partly because he really did believe that the three of them would draw on him if he fell asleep at the table. He didn't think that Dean would be nice about it, either. There would be no mostaches and goatees from Dean. It would be dicks pointed at his mouth and bad words scrawled across his forehead, and he wasn't sure that Zoe wouldn't be unamused enough to stop it.

They had cooked together, him and Zoe, for the dinner, and it was so easy with the give and take between them that everything was ready in no time. Like clockwork.

Now, all they had to do was wait.

The conference had given Thomas Townsend feelings. There wasn't any one feeling; there were so many, and he wanted very much not to feel many of them. He'd given answers; he'd set some minds at ease. He'd done what he'd set out to do; only he'd pissed off one of the more worrisome tenants. The Cowboy God was not at all happy, not even close. The Amazon hadn't exactly left pleased with him either. She could be trouble, too, if she were to hint something to the Cowboy God, yet she could also be useful. She'd kept the Cowboy God from causing trouble, hadn't she?

Thomas paced outside Beauty's home; it had been his home, and he had never thought he'd call one little building a home. He'd make it up to her somehow. He'd make her understand just how much she had meant to him, yet he wanted to protect her somehow too. He couldn't go to the Cowboy God for help, not that he thought that man would ever endanger such an innocent as Beauty.

With a determined set to his jaw, he headed out to find the damned - a word he'd heard before when people were determined, frustrated and so many other things - Cowboy God. He needed some assurances that Beauty would never get caught in their struggle. That was it. That was what he would do. Of course, he had nothing to bargain with, but he'd figure it out. He'd learned so much after all, hadn't he?

Zoe didn't say anything after she left the conference room; she hadn't even stayed to see if there was indeed an answer. She simply walked out. Perhaps she should have run, but she thought she'd give Jesse a little room to calm down. Just a little.

She caught up quickly though, for all the room she gave him. She didn't touch him until she was at his side, making sure he could see her. The Amazon took his hand, not slowing him down, not stopping him. She walked with him wherever he had thought to go; walking without stopping didn't exactly mean she wouldn't say anything.

"You asked more than one question." It was a small joke, and she was risking making him even angrier. "Don't think you're going to get your answer out here."

Dinah was doing the avoiding thing for the most part. Zee had tried to call and she'd sent a text telling her friend that she just needed some time and would call when she was ready. She didn't want to talk to her friends right now, but she did want to keep busy. Which meant that she'd been spending a lot of time working on getting the shop fixed up. She was currently sweeping up the glass and soon she would be installing the new windows that had just been delivered. Unlike the last time the shop had gotten trashed when the materials to fix it up had just magically appeared, Dinah had had to wait for everything to be delivered.

But it was here now, and working with her hands was exactly what she needed.

Working with her hands and... answers, really. She needed answers. She wanted to know what had happened to Jake. She needed to know if he had made it back home-even if she dreaded the confirmation of that news.

She knew how his story turned out. She knew that if he'd made it back home, he didn't have long before his death.

She knew all that.

But she still needed to know. Not knowing was driving her crazy.

Somewhere in the middle of sweeping up the last of the glass, it hit her. There might be someone in the City who could answer her questions. Someone who had shown up when they'd needed him most. She still didn't know if he was a god-or God, capital G, or just a guy with god-like abilities. She really didn't know what to believe in that.

She also didn't know how to get ahold of him, and she wasn't usually much for praying.

All the same, she did say a little prayer. She wasn't sure if she should say it silently or out loud. And she wasn't really sure if she was wasting her time or not.

"Um, Jesse. If you're out there, I could really use someone to talk to right now. I suppose if you are around, you're probably busy with more important things. Assuming you can hear me at all. But if you can hear me and you're not too busy... I could really use your help."

A tear slipped down her cheek as she admitted out loud that she needed help, but she just swiped at it and went back to sweeping. She didn't expect an answer, but she'd tried anyway.

Fred was grateful for Dinah, but she wasn't in the mood for pasta, even if it was heavenly or orgasmic. The brainy female didn't want anything to eat, which was odd for her perhaps. She didn't want to talk. She didn't want to do anything. Instead, she walked around the City, getting used to the stationary streets. Well, the streets had always been stationary, just not the same sort of stationary. The buildings weren't moving.

She roamed the City streets until dusk; it'd been a while since she felt like this. Actually she wasn't even sure what she felt. Going home she curled up in bed and waited for the sun to rise.

The next day, Fred got out of bed, got cleaned up, and got out of the house. She wasn't in the mood to be strong, but she didn't have much choice. The world wouldn't stop just for her. She really did need to figure out what the world had stopped though. Help to figure it out anyway.

What was she going to do about it? First, she was going to have her go to, and she thought doing it with someone she hoped would give her something to work with. If not that, he was good for a hug...she hoped.

It took her a while to get to the proper diner that served the best waffles. Using the diner's pay phone, she placed the call to her favorite Southern boy.

Jesse was doing his best to keep an eye on things in The City while it was so out of whack. He felt like he, as a being with power, was responsible for the safety and sanity of others during this time of fear and confusion. It probably wasn't his job, not really, but he couldn't help it. Years of being a preacher helped to guide him back into the role with little resistance.

The people of The City were very panicked. They had grown up in this place and were used to the way that things were. Or had been. They didn't know what to do with the buildings and streets being still. They seemed more lost as they tried to get from place to place than the average abductee did when they first encountered the movement. They moved about the streets in their shocked states, and some of them didn't even seem to be taking care of themselves.

So it felt only natural that Jesse should stop to peer into the church as he passed it and noticed that there were so many people there that they were spilling out onto the sidewalk. All of them were City born. All of them were trying to find answers to what was going on. He could hear and feel their pleas, most of them talking to the City itself, some of them imploring any god that could hear them.

He pushed his way up to the pulpit and got the crowd to settle down. When they were quiet and listening, Jesse Custer did something that he hadn't done in a very long time. He gave a sermon. And meant it.

The older Winchester had yet to tell anyone he was in the hospital. He didn't want to worry anyone. He also didn't want people messing with his phone. It was bad enough that they'd taken his gun, knives, multiple ids, and the phone to pack away where he couldn't get them. It wasn't that he could use them, which wasn't the point. They were packed away from him.

He rested on the hospital bed. He had a few other problems, not just the ruined hands, that had come from being thrown into a wall. He shifted on the bed, groaning to himself. He couldn't even press the button very well to ease the pain with a little chemical help. It was slight misery.

The hunter stared up at the ceiling. He was useless here, and he was going to be lucky to get for mobility back in his fingers the way they'd been crushed. He couldn't even protect himself much less help anyone else. These were the moments Dean hated himself the most; he hated that he pitied himself and that he could do nothing. He was just some poor slob who couldn't lift a finger, in this case literally, to even wipe the drool off his own jaw.

Well, there was one thing he could do in the past, but he didn't want to go that route here. He didn't even know if it was possible. He hadn't seen his own personal angel in days, weeks. The only other type he knew of who could hear prayers, maybe...

"So, look, this is probably as uncomfortable for me as it is you, but if you could see your way into giving a hand here." He shook his head at his own slip of the tongue. "I need help. Not asking you to prove yourself, just asking you to help." He looked at his hands, what he could see of them under the bandages anyway.

"I can't believe I may actually be praying to a guy who smokes and knows Batman." He just shook his head, giving a soft laugh at just how bad it had gotten. Dean knew he was going to have to get some flowers or something for Lois Lane; he laughed again thinking of how she'd probably just throw them out.

Jesse woke up with a start. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest, and he didn't know why. But something was wrong. Really, really wrong. He looked around, trying to see if he could spy fire or smoke, or something immediately near that would cause him to feel this way. But the apartment was clear. Zoe slumbered peacefully next to him. If she was still asleep, calm, then there was no danger within her apartment. She wasn't the type to sleep through a problem.

He was up and dressing as quickly as he could, looking out the windows of her bedroom. He could see nothing out there to cause panic. But he gathered the rest of his items and went to Zoe's side of the bed. He kissed her softly on the cheek and whispered that he had to go, but didn't bother to try to wake her. He felt like there was no time for it.

As he moved through the apartment, he finished dressing himself. There was a smoke in his mouth and lit up before he hit the elevator, and it was finished as the bell dinged for the lobby. The ride had felt like it took years, but he knew only minutes had gone by.

When he got outside, the wrongness settled on him further. Jesse looked and couldn't pinpoint it. Everything seemed fine. But there was something... what?

He began to walk, the destination of his own building in mind, ready to navigate the moving streets and shifting buildings, and that's when it dawned on him. None of that was happening. Everything was still. Everything was staying in one place.

Jesse stopped in the middle of the street, looking around him, more than a little confused.

Now that he and Zoe were officially an item (something that he was having a sort of hard time getting used to), Jesse wasn't exactly shy about showing up at her place, even when she wasn't there. Sometimes he had food waiting for her, and sometimes it was just him waiting for her, and food came around later.

Tonight he'd had food ready for her, but an hour after her usual return time, he'd started eating it. Then he started reading some really trashing romance novel that he found hidden not-so-neatly under her couch. At first he was only reading it so he could make fun of her for it later, then it got to the point that he couldn't put it down. Before he knew it, it was almost through the whole thing, and all of the dinner was gone.

On top of that, he discovered he'd also lit up a cigarette. It hadn't been too long ago, the thing was still half there. But he'd promised Zoe he wouldn't smoke in her place. In a panic, and not giving any consideration to the fact that with his powers he could just zap the smell away, Jesse was opening windows and spraying whatever he could find that smelled nice around her space when he heard the door open.

If there was one good thing about The City, Murphy thought, it was the fact that she didn't have to turn her official police reports into works of fiction, with made-up terrorist organizations, and gas line ruptures or mass hysteria and folle a deux to explain away the magic and the unexplained. She could just write down that there was a giant primate terrorizing The City. It made headlines of real, legitimate newspapers, not just the gossip rags. It was kind of refreshing.

On the other hand, with all the superheroes known to mankind to serve and protect, it was starting to make Murphy feel a little bit...out of place. Unnecessary. Sure, there was the day to day weirdness, but she was feeling a little disconnected again lately, and she knew she needed to do something about it. So, Wednesday, after her shift, she sent Jesse a quick message to see if he was free for coffee. Even if he wasn't able to join her, what better way to get over mid-week hump day than a shot of caffeine?

Zoe stared at herself in the mirror. She fixed her hair, then looked at her dress. It had been some time since she cared about someone and how she looked for said someone. She rarely bothered with dressing up; the dinner was already in the oven, remaining warm. It wasn't anything overly fancy, but it was actually something different. A stew with cornbread. It was something more suited to his upbringing perhaps. Yes, she'd taken the time to find out what he might have eaten before he came to the City.

The dress tight in just the right places, hung in others, cut just right to show exactly how female she was. Her hair had been straightened for a slightly different look. She was a woman tonight, and she partially wondered if he would even notice or care about the difference. There was some part of her that wanted to throw it all out and not worry about it.

For once Zoe Washburne was making a conscious effort to be something more. Or something different. Now she just had to wait for him to show up.

Jesse Custer. He wasn't that difficult to find, as he was in the book. Plus, Jennifer knew the exact address. Having a partner who was aware helped. Then again, finding someone was a police detective's job.

Detective Charlie Crews of the City Police watched the numbers change as the elevator went to the correct floor. He waited for the doors to open before he even bothered moving. It was an easily ambling walk as he made his way to the desired door. His movement was just as relaxed as his hand lifted to knock on the door. He absently thought about Jennifer and her cat; it'd been a while since he'd checked in on the alien tabby. He also needed to get fish for his own cat; she'd been so good lately.

Finally his knuckles rapped against the door. He unbuttoned his jacket to show the badge sitting at his waistband; it wasn't exactly a threat, just a reminder of who or what he was. Sometimes it gave him just the edge he wanted. He needed to know that this man was a good guy; he had to look after his partner after all.

Jesse didn't want Karrin going anywhere near the cause of the storm. He didn't really want anyone going near the cause of the storm. Were he a different man, he might have sent the cause of the storm the hell out of the City completely.

He had to let her know to keep herself safe. Admittedly, he cheated a little bit. He didn't take out his phone to send the message, didn't look up her number, didn't do any of the things that a normal human might do. He used his powers. He sent her a note right to her phone.

Karrin,

I don't want you fighting that thing we were discussing. It ain't the kind of thing that can be taken down simply. Please, keep everyone you think would go after it away.

-Jesse Custer

Jesse left the little blond Holy Knight with the understanding that she wouldn't charge into anything, and he would contact her if it was something that she could take care of. He hoped it was. He didn't really want to be in the middle of all this. For now he had to be. He could pinpoint the cause of the storm quicker than anybody, and keep tabs until he caught up with them. But he was praying that he wouldn't have to step in any further than that.

He was sad to discover that the power behind the wreckage was huge and easier to find than he'd though it would be. When he looked, he discovered that it hadn't just been a weather mutant, or some kind of extra special person. The power was something as big as his was. Older, too. Which meant that he probably shouldn't send Karrin after it, should - in fact - warn her to keep clear. Probably tell Harry to keep clear too. The guy had a good deal of power himself, but Jesse didn't feel confident about them enough to think that Harry could take on what was out there.

It wasn't the power alone that was old, either. The being carrying it was ancient. If it had just been a matter of the power itself, he could match that easily. But the fact that whoever was carrying it had been using it for a long time made things a little sketchy for him. It meant that they knew what they were doing with theirs. They weren't running on instinct like he was. There was absolute control there, no risk of accidents (Like having Buffy, Fray and a bunch of pudding show up in a room in the middle of the night).

Jesse kept focused on the power until he managed to appear right next to it. The face he found was not quite what he'd expected it to be. Young and male, when he'd gotten the distinct impression of old and female. And was, in fact, still getting that impression despite what he was looking at.

"You an' me, we gotta have a talk." He said calmly.

Jesse stood in front of a shop and looked out at the devastation the storm had brought to The City. The place had hardly seen such foul weather, and here it spent a good two days with something far worse than the snow had brought upon them.

Funny thing was, he knew it wasn't the City that did it.

What could be out there that would be powerful enough to cause such weather in this place, without this place lashing back at them? Him, he could do it. He wouldn't do it, but he could have. He'd not met any other being capable. It worried him a little, not knowing who or what it was, not being able to put a face to the power behind this. Was it somebody new, or had they been here the whole time? Had he managed to not encounter them? And he'd thought everybody eventually met everybody.

He chewed his lip a little bit, and then put his cigarette back in his mouth. The idea that kept swirling around in his head was that he was going to have to find this being. For good or for bad, he was going to have to seek them out. Not that he knew what he was going to do or say once he'd discovered them. But he couldn't just sit back and let something like this happen.

And what about the City? Why had it allowed this?

Something was amiss. The preacher couldn't figure it out, but he'd find the truth.

"Hell of a thing." He muttered, looking across the street at a building that had all of it's windows broken, and what looked like massive water damage inside. He thought it had been some kind of corner store previously, but all the wares were so severely soaked, he couldn't really make much of it out. Save the shrink wrapped items that he was fairly positive could survive Armageddon without their wrappers. Those he was able to identify.

To say Harry wasn't having a very good time of things was putting it mildly. He'd had worse times, true, but losing a girlfriend was usually pretty hard on him. There had been the inevitable conversation with Murphy, and then Harry had simply avoided answering his phone for a while, staying away from the apartment if he suspected Murphy was there, and throwing himself into work. He kept his training sessions with River out in open areas, away from people.

He wanted someone to talk to. Someone male. Someone to share a drink with, complain to, and then go off any bury the rest of his feelings into work or other aggressive activity.

Luckily, Jesse Custer was in the phone book.

He'd only gotten to leave a message, but he hoped it was clear enough. Harry waited at a table, nursing a beer, while Mouse slumbered underfoot. The bartender had initially been against letting the big dog in, until Mouse had given him a doggy grin, offered his paw, and rolled onto his back for belly rubs. Once again, the Foo dog showed better people skills than Harry.

(After This)

Hank was working in his lab, clothes a bit wrinkled and dirty. He'd been finding some curious little things in the city as a bear, his animal nose surprisingly excellent at locating the hiding spots of creatures and humans alike.

But he was more interested in the blood samples he'd been taking from himself and other so-called weres, trying to understand what was going on in their DNA. He was curious about the properties that allowed a compete shift in form take place, and the brushing off of "it's magic" just didn't work for him. After all, magic was widely theorized to only be technology that isn't widely seen or understood back in his own world, and he felt the same was true here.

He was working heavily on the project, not only to make progress but also to forget the embarrassment about the night before. He was ashamed of biting an innocent man, however understandable the incident was. And he was very, very embarrassed about swimming in the nude with Baba, a feeling that rushed over him as soon as the bear's indifferent instincts were lost to his human form.

Last night had just been.... well. A learning experience, perhaps. At least, that was what Hank was trying to convince himself when he was forced to take a coffee break and his thoughts were finally pried away from his microscopic slides and vials.

He hadn't been entirely too happy with getting kicked out of Zoe's place almost right after they'd woken up, but he made it to a store and picked up a pack of cigarettes and it made him feel a little better. Going for an entire night without a smoke had been a new and unpleasant experience.

Real joy came, however, when he got back to his place and after a bit of messing around, discovered - accidentally - that he could become the dog at any time he wanted to. Of course, returning to human form meant that he was bare ass naked, which probably shouldn't happen in public, just for the sake of law breaking.

But remembering how much fun he'd had at night, and thought that a daytime excursion would be better. Different at the very least. More people. More animals out and about. The sunshine. Oh, sunshine. How would that feel on his fur? Maybe he could find some kids to play with, too. Run around until his doggy legs wouldn't carry him anymore.

Not having put on his clothes again after his return trip to humanland, Jesse reverted to the dog form again. He spent a moment trying to figure out if he could carry the smokes and a lighter with him, and decided he could not. Even if he could, he'd have to find somebody to get one out of the pack and light it for him, and that just didn't seem like it was going to happen. Zoe had been quite adamant about dogs not smoking. He was guessing that other people would be as well.

He took the same route out of the building as he had the first time, and ran straight to the park. Almost straight to the park. He did stop and sniff a couple of things on the way, including sticking his nose up a cute girl's skirt to see if he could get away with it. He could. She laughed.

In the morning sun, the grass smelled delightful. He was sniffing it and then started eating it, not even thinking about what he was doing. Once he'd had a good amount of it, he suddenly felt the need to throw up. The big green mushy ball that came out of him didn't disturb the dog part one bit. His human part, however, decided that if eating grass gave that result, he was going to do his best to stay away from even nibbling it.

Jesse took off at a full sprint through the park, tail wagging happily, smelling the air as it rushed into his nose.

Jesse went home directly after his conversation with Dr Hank the polar bear. He didn't want to be in public when he changed, if it was going to happen. If he became something vicious and didn't have his own mind at first, he didn't want to hurt anybody. Even though Hank had seemed perfectly in control of himself, minus that talking bit, Jesse couldn't be certain that he would react the same way.

Of course, being who and what he was, he could likely stop all of it before it even happened, but he discovered that he sort of wanted to change into something else. He wanted to know what it was like. On top of that, he was curious to see what he was going to change into. Did the City pick the animal? Was it related to who he was as a person? If that was the case, then what did being a polar bear say about the doctor? Or was it all random?

It didn't really take long for him to find out. Jesse changed within the hour. It hurt, as Hank had warned him. But much worse than he'd been expecting. He supposed he'd imagined a slight discomfort, but this was like every inch of him was in extreme pain for a few moments. Moments that felt like hours. Then he was swamped in his own clothing and a good deal closer to the floor. He walked around the apartment a bit, getting used to the new form, realizing that he was a dog, before going into the bathroom and jumping up on the counter to see into the mirror.

He grinned at himself. The mottled black and tan coat. The blue eye and the brown eye gazing back at him. He supposed being a mutt was pretty fitting. He would have had a dog like this growing up, if the ancient hag Marie had allowed such a thing, or if his parents had lived and found a way out of that place. This was the kind of dog every boy dreamed of. A playful, happy looking animal.

There was an urge that he found familiar, and he went to satisfy it, but rememebered moments into the act that he no longer had pockets, or hands, which meant no smokes. No smoking. That was a bit of a downer.

Well, he'd just have to find something to occupy his time with, then.

After wrestling with the knob on the front door for a while, Jesse managed to get out of his condo, down the elevator, and out the front door with a strange look from the front desk girl and the doorman.

Running, tongue lolling out, Jesse ran to find the first person he thought of.

Hank was… getting used to his bear form. Starting to enjoy it, a little. As soon as he'd found he could shift back and forth the whole thing became much more tolerable. Well, that and rumors has spread that he was not the only one, so maybe it was just the City toying with them as Hannibal suggested it sometimes did.

At nights he went out to the park, strolling around in his bear form and exploring. He liked to sniff out things, then take them to a hiding spot and come back to investigate them when he was human. The comparison between the sets of senses were pleasing, if not a bit useless.

Tonight, though, Hank went to the docks in human form, slipping into and ally and changing out of his clothes, shifting quickly. It was getting easier, the more he did it, and soon a polar bear was sneaking guiltily down to the water.

When he got to the edge he blinked, staring at the water and sniffing it. He almost smiled, though he was a bit nervous. The bear wanted to go in, to see if there was food. The human part of him knew polar bears were great swimmers, he'd studied up on them when he'd first returned to human form, but he was still a bit apprehensive even after deciding to come here.

All it really took was a small frog jumping into the water to his side, and Hank's predatory instincts took over. He lurched forward into a semi-graceful dive into the water, plunging in and finding the water perfectly deep enough for a giant mammal to enter for a swim.

Hank human mind felt a flash of terror as he cannonballed and the water enveloped him; he'd never actually swam before and had never been in water deeper than the shallow baths his mother had given him as a child, but the bear kicked in and knew what to do, plunging down and down and looking around. The moonlight didn't allow for much light, but it was still very clear, and as Hank turned joyfully he felt the polar bear's full appreciation for the world under the surface where his weight and bulk didn't mean so much.

Hank surfaced, taking a deep breath of air before spotting his frog on a rope hanging down into the water, looking disinterested. He went still, then lunged for it, far too slow to catch the slimy creature as it hopped into the water and bolted away, but then again he wasn't really interested in catching it anyway. He couldn't imagine frogs tasted that good raw, whatever the French liked to do with them in the kitchen.

Yes, Hank was a happy polar bear, surfacing and diving and testing how long he could go underwater. As long as no boat ran over him he could see spending the night here.