𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢 | 𝐬𝐩𝐧

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

"RONALD Reznick?" Carter called, knocking on a screen door. A young man, round with brown hair and a comic book in hand, answered the door. "I already gave my statement to the police. " He told them. "Yeah, listen, Ronald, um . . . just some things about your statement we wanted to get some clarification on," Dean confirmed. "You read it? You come to listen to what I've got to say? Come in!" He laughed lightly and opened the door fully, then led them into his home. The walls were covered with alien photos and conspiracy theory paraphernalia.

"None of the cops ever called me back. Not after I told them what was really going on. Uh, they all thought I was crazy. First off, Juan Morales never robbed the Milwaukee National Trust, okay? That, I guarantee. See, we and Juan were friends. He used to come back to the bank on my night shifts, and we'd play cards. I---I thought I let him into the bank. The thing I let into the bank . . . wasn't Juan. I mean, it had his face, but it wasn't his face. Uh, every detail was perfect but too perfect, you know, like if a dollmaker made it like I was talking to a big Juan-doll. This wasn't the only time this happened. There was this jewelry store, too. And the cops, a--and you guys, you just won't see it!" Reznick told them.

"Calm down. Calm down. What's that, Mr. Reznick?" Carter asked, pointing at a weird magazine. He picked it up and held it close to his chest. The headline at the bottom said "BIRTH OF THE CYBERMEN".

"Chinese've been working on 'em for years. And the Russians before that. Part men, part machine. Like the Terminator. But the kind that can change itself, make itself look like other people." Ronald told her. "Like the one from T2," Dean smirked. "Exactly! See, so not just a robot, more of a, a, a, a ... Mandroid!" He exclaimed. "And what makes you so sure about this, Ronald?" Dean asked.

Ronald showed them a VHS tape. "See, I made copies of all the security tapes. I knew once the cops got them they'd be buried. Now watch. Watch. Watch him, watch, watch! See, look! Th-, then-, there it is! See? Laser eyes!" Ronald exclaimed. Juan was looking at the camera with light flare in his eyes, just like the shapeshifter that walked around as Dean a while back.

"Cops said it was some kind of reflected light. Some kind of "camera flare". Okay? Ain't no damn camera flare. They say I'm a post-trauma case. So what? Bank goes and fires me, it doesn't matter! The Mandroid is, is still out there. The law won't hunt this thing down -- I'll do it myself. You see, this thing, it, it, it kills the real person, makes it look like a suicide, then it sorta, like, morphs into that person. Cases the job for a while until it knows the take is fat, and then it finds its opening. Now, these robberies, they're, they're grouped together. So I figure the Mandroid is holed up somewhere in the middle, underground, maybe. I dunno, maybe that's where it recharges its, uh, Mandroid batteries." Ronald ranted.

"Yeah...okay." Carter cleared her throat. "I need to go grab something from the car." She lied. She walked out and began dying of laughter. Dean and Sam soon followed. "We were kicked out," Dean said simply.

-

"You haven't stopped laughing since Ronald's!" Sam told Carter. "A M-Mandro--" She began wheezing and coughing. Sam snickered. "Hey hey hey! We don't need two laughing bitches over here---" Dean broke out into laughter mid-sentence. "Okay! Okay! Except for the Mandroid part, I liked him. He's not that different from you or me. People think we're crazy." He told Sam. "Yeah, but he isn't like us. He isn't a hunter. It's better to keep his nose out of this." Sam responded.

They got out of the Impala and straightened their ties, then went into the City Bank of Milwaukee, posing as Securiserve Guard Service technicians. They were shown to the camera room and looked around for the eye flare when they finally found it from a man. But there was something else.

Ronald.

Ronald padlocked a door and secured the bank, an assault rifle in hand. "Go for Ronald, I'll get the creep!" Carter shouted at Sam and Dean. They ran out of the room and down the hall. "This is not a robbery! Everybody on the floor now! Get down, dammit! Come on! On the floor, on the floor! In the middle! On the floor in the middle! In the middle, on the floor, come on! Hurry up, come on!" Ronald demanded.

Sam and Dean approached him. "Hey, buddy. Calm down. Just calm down," Dean coaxed. "What the- You! Get on the floor, now." Ronald told him. Carter scooted by a wall, trying to move discreetly when Ronald caught her and shot above her head. "On the ground! I knew it. As soon as you left. You ain't FBI. Who are you? Who are you working for, huh? The men in black? You working for the Mandroid?" He questioned as soon as she lowered herself onto the ground.

"Ronald, we're here to stop this! We know you don't want to hurt anybody. That's exactly what's gonna happen if you keep waving that cannon around, and why don't you let these people go? Now come here." Carter instructed. Ronald approached her, pressing the rifle to her head. "It's the bank manager." She whispered. "Why do you think we've got these suits, huh? We've been monitoring the cameras in the back. We saw the bank manager. We saw his eyes....his--" She sighed. "We saw his 'laser eyes' and we're running out of time, okay? We've got to find him before he changes into someone else."

"Take me as a hostage. But we've gotta act fast. Because the longer we just sit here the more time he has to change." Dean told Ronald. "Fine. But the pretty one comes too. Now everyone else in the vault!" Ronald yelled.

-

While Dean, Carter, and the crazy gun-waving man walked down the hall, the lights turned off. "Fantastic. The cops are here. You're a horrible criminal, Ron...no offense." Carter muttered. "All right, hang on, hang on, let's just take a breath here for a second, all right? They - they've probably got us surrounded. They've cut the power to the cameras so there's no way of telling who the shapeshifter is. It's not looking good, Ron." Dean thought out loud. "Fanta--well that's fucking gross." Carter gagged, staring down at a pile of skin.

"It's shed."