[Nightshifter]
A bank was surrounded by police cars, press, and an ambulance in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
A female reporter spoke. "We're here downtown in front of the City Bank of Milwaukee, and though a short exchange of weapons fire occurred just minutes ago, police and SWAT teams maintain position as we enter the third hour of this intense standoff. Authorities estimate as many as ten hostages are being held inside the bank; no word as yet on the identity of the suspects, or, uh-" There was a commotion behind her. "Something's happening. I think they're opening the door. Roger, are you getting this?"
Police, and others nearby, shouted over each other.
"No, don't shoot, don't shoot!" a man yelled.
"No, no, no, don't even think about it! Get the hell back!" Dean ordered.
Two men and a young woman exited the bank; a terrified security guard, Dean and Ella; Dean pushing the other man in front of him and holding a rifle.
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
ONE DAY AGO
JEWELRY STORE
An attractive young woman, Frannie, came out of the back with some papers in her hand. Dean turned to face her as she spoke. He was dressed in a dark suit.
"So what's it like, being a FBI guy?" Frannie asked.
"Well, it's dangerous," Dean said. "And the secrets we've gotta keep, oh, God, the secrets. But mostly it's, it's lonely."
"I so know what you mean."
"Yeah."
Sam, who was also dressed in a suit with slicked hair, and Ella who was in a dress with a ponytail, were interrogating the manager, a middle-aged man.
"Helena was our head buyer," the manager told them. "She... she was family, you know? She said it herself, every years at the Christmas party. She said we were the only family she had."
"So there were never any signs that she'd do something like this?" Sam asked.
"No. Still can't believe it, even now. That night, Helena came back to the store after closing. Cleaned out all the display cases, and the safe. Edgar -- our night watchman -- he caught her in the act. He didn't know what to do, he'd known her for years. He called me at home."
"And that's when she took his gun?" Ella questioned.
"She shot him in the face. I heard him die. Over the phone."
"Any idea what her motive could have been?" Sam inquired.
"What motive? It makes no sense. Why steal all this diamonds, all that jewelry, and then what? Just dump it somewhere, just hide it, and then go home and-"
"She killed herself?" Dean asked.
"Well, the cops said," Frannie replied. "She dropped the hair dryer in the bath and fried herself. They should know, right?"
"Yeah. Well, thank you, Frannie, I think that's all I need."
"Really? Because I've got more. You know," she looked around slyly, "if you wanted to interview me sometime. In private?"
Dean eyed Sam and Ella guiltily across the room. "Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. You're a true patriot, you really are. Why don't you write your number down there for me?"
"So you never saw the security footage yourself then?" Sam questioned.
"No," the manager said. "The police, they took all the tapes, first thing."
Dean approached the two of them. "Yeah, of course they did." He waved Frannie's number at Sam and Ella.
STREET
They left the jewelry store and drove down a dark street and pulled up in front of a small house.
"Five, this is it," Sam said.
"Friggin' cops," Dean muttered.
"They're just doing their job, Dean."
"No, they're doing our job, only they don't know it, so they suck at it," Dean said. "Talk to us about this bank."
They got out of the car and approached the house.
"Uh, Milwaukee National Trust, it was hit about a month ago," Sam told them.
"Same M.O. as the jewelry store?" Dean asked.
"Yep, inside job, longtime employee, the never-in-a-million-years type. Dude robs the bank, then goes home and supposedly commits suicide."
"This guy Resnick, he was the security guard on duty?"
Ella nodded. "Yeah. He was actually beaten unconscious by the teller who heisted the place."
"God."
"Yeah," Sam replied as he knocked on the screen door. "Mr. Resnick? Ronald Resnick?"
A bright floodlight turned on, and they shielded their eyes.
"Son of a b-" Dean began.
A young man in his 20s came to the door warily.
"FBI, Mr. Resnick," Sam told him.
"Let me see the badge."
Sam, Dean and Ella pulled out badges and slapped them against the screen door in unison.
Ronald squinted a them carefully. "I already gave my statement to the police."
"Yeah, listen Ronald, uh... just some things about your statement we wanted to get some clarification on," Dean said.
"You read it?"
"Sure did," Dean and Ella replied.
"And you want to listen to what I've got to say?"
Ella tilted her head to the left slightly. "Well, that's why we're here."
"Well. Come on in."
Ronald opened the door and led them through a narrow hallway to a cluttered room; the walls were covered with alien photos and Conspiracy Theory paraphernalia.
"None of the cops ever called me back," Roger told them. "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, me and Juan were friends, he used to come back to the bank on my night shifts and we'd play cards."
"So you let him into the bank that night, after hours," Sam said.
"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, like, you know, like if a dealmaker made it, like I was talking to a big Juan-doll."
"A Juan-doll?"
"Look. This wasn't the only time this happened. Okay?" He handed Sam a file folder. "There was the jewelry store, too. And the cops, and you guys, you just won't see it!" Sam looked at the folder; it looked like a hunter's profile of the jewelry case. "Both crimes were pulled by the same thing."
"What's that, Mr. Resnick?"
Ronald picked up a copy of the magazine called "Fortean Times" and held it to his chest. The headline at the bottom read BIRTH OF THE CYBERMEN.
"Chinese have been working on 'em for years," Ronald explained. "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."
Dean smirked. "Like the one from T2."
"Exactly! See, so not just a robot, more of a, uh, a Mandroid."
"A Mandroid?" Sam repeated.
"And what makes you so sure about this, Ronald?" Ella questioned.
Ronald held up a finger, smiling a little wildly.
Ronald inserted a VHS tape labeled M.N.T. Camera 4 -- Juan into a player. "See, I made copies of all the security tapes. I knew once the cops got them they'd be buried. Here." He fast-forwarded. "Now watch. Watch. Watch him, watch, watch! See, look! There it is!" He paused the tape. "You see? He's got the laser eyes."
Juan faced the camera, a light-flare in his eyes, and Sam, Dean and Ella exchanged a knowing look.
Ronald continued. "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 don't matter!" Sam eyed him cautiously as he continued to rant. "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 kills the real person, makes it look like a suicide, then it sorta like, morphs into that person. Cases the job for awhile until it know the take is fat, and then it finds its opening. Now, these robberies, they're, they're grouped together." He gestured to a map on the wall. "So I figure the Mandroid is holed up somewhere n the middle, underground, maybe. I don't know, maybe that's where it recharges its, uh, Mandroid batteries."
Dean nodded, impressed. Ella cracked a faint smile. Sam stared intently and the four stood.
"Okay," Sam said. "I want you to listen very carefully. Because I'm about to tell you the God's honest truth about all of this. There's no such thing as Mandroids. There's nothing evil or inhuman going on out there. Just people. Nothing else, you understand?"
Dean was mostly maintaining a straight face, but was startled. Ella was glancing at Sam with a look of light disbelief. They started to say something.
"The laser eyes," Ronald reminded them desperately.
"Just a camera flare, Mr. Resnick. Look, I know you don't want to believe this. But your friend Juan robbed the bank and that's it."
"Get out of my house! Now!"
"Sure. First things first."
Dean and Ella frowned at Sam in further confusion.
MOTEL ROOM
The trio returned to their motel room, dressed in their ordinary clothes.
"Man, that has got to be the kicker, straight up," Dean said. "I mean, you tell that poor son of a bitch that, what did you say, remand the tapes that he copied? Classified evidence of an ongoing investigation?"
Sam sat down to watch the tape. "What are you two, pissed at me or something?"
"No, Ella and I just think it's a little creepy how good of a Fed you are. I mean, come on, we could have at least thrown the guy a bone. He did some pretty good legwork here."
"Mandroid?"
"Except for the Mandroid part," Ella answered. "Dean and I liked him. Dean definitely more so. He's not that different from you two or me, people think we're crazy."
"Yeah, except he's not a hunter, Ella. He's just a guy who stumbled onto something real. If he were to go up against this thing, he'd get torn apart. Better to stay in the dark, and stay alive."
"Yeah, I guess so."
Dean placed tracing paper over the map and started marking it with a red pen as Sam paused the tape on the flaring eyes.
"Shapeshifter," Sam said. "Just like back in St. Louis. Same retinal reaction to video."
"Eyes flare at the camera," Dean added. "I hate those friggin' things."
"You think Ella and I don't?"
"Yeah, well, one didn't turn into you and frame you two or murder."
"Well, look. If this shifter's anything like the one we killed in Missouri-"
"Then Ronald was right. All right, they like to lawyer up underground, preferably the sewer. And all the robberies have been connected so far, right?"
"Yeah."
Ella looked at what Dean had traced. "With the, um, sewer main layout. There's one more bank lined up on that same sewer main."
---
The trio made their way to the bank.
A guard led Sam, Dean and Ella, uniformed as technicians, down the main hall.
"Well, we haven't had any flags go up on our system yet," the guard said.
"No, this is a glitch in the overall grid, we just want to make sure the branch monitors are kosher," Dean lied.
"Well, better to be safe than sorry, I guess."
"That's the plan."
GUARDROOM
The guard opened the door to an observation room with several TV screens showing security footage. "All righty. You guys need anything else?"
"Oh, no, no, we'll be, uh, we'll be in and out before you know it, just a routine check," Sam said.
"Okie-dokie."
"I like him," Dean decided. "He says "Okie-dokie.""
Ella rolled her eyes. "Idiot."
"Rude."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"No you're not."
"What if he's the shifter?" Sam asked, frowning at the two of them.
"Well, then we follow him home, put a silver bullet through his chest plate."
They sat down to watch the screens.
"Okay," Ella said. "Well, you two got any popcorn?" She looked between the brothers. "What? Sometimes a girl just wants popcorn."
The guard eventually popped up on a screen and his eyes were normal.
"Well, it looks like mister okie-dokie is... okie-dokie," Dean told his brother and Ella.
"Maybe we jumped the gun on this, Dean, Ella. I mean, we don't even know know it's here."
"Mm-hmm," Dean and Ella hummed, distracted.
"Maybe we should just go back to the sewers and... and..."
Dean was zooming one of of the cameras in on a young woman's butt who was bending over. Ella sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Dean, we're supposed to be looking for eyes," Sam said in an exasperated tone.
"I'm getting there."
"Oh yeah?"
"Wait a minute."
On another screen, a middle-aged man turned towards the camera and his eyes flared.
"Hello, freak," Dean commented.
"Got him," Sam stated.
Sam headed for the door, but Dean and Ella lingered behind, looking at another screen.
"Sam!" Dean and Ella called.
"What?"
They watched as Ronald scurried up to the outer door with a chain and a padlock, chaining the door shut.
"Hello Ronald," Dean and Ella greeted.
BANK MAIN HALL
Ronald ran inside and down the stairs. He had an assault rifle and he brandished it and fired once as he got to the bottom of the stairs.
"This is not a robbery! Everybody on the floor now!" Ronald ordered.
Ronald fired again into the air and people began screaming and ducking for cover. "Get down, damn it! Come on! On the floor, on the floor! In the middle, on the floor, come on! Hurry up, come on!"
HALLWAY
Dean, Sam and Ella walked down a hallway towards the main hall and a few panicked people brushed past them, running the other way.
"And you said we shouldn't bring guns," Dean said.
"I didn't know this was gonna happen, Dean," Sam replied.
"Just let me and Dean do the talking. I don't think he likes you very much, Agent Johnson," Ella told Sam in a faintly teasing tone.
BANK MAIN HALL
Ronald held up a key. "Now, there's only one way in or out of here, and I chained it up. So nobody's leaving, do you understand?"
Dean entered. "Hey, buddy. Calm down. Just calm down-"
"What the- You! Get on the floor, now."
"Okay, we're doing that," Ella agreed. "Just don't shoot anybody, especially us."
"I knew it. As soon as you three left. You ain't FBI. Who are you? Who are you working for, huh? The men in black? You working for the Mandroid?"
"We're not working for the Mandroid!" Sam yelled.
"You, shut up! I ain't talking to you, I don't like you."
Dean and Ella shot Sam an "I told you so" look.
"Fair enough."
Ronald said to one of the hostages, "Get on 'em. Frisk them down, make sure they got no weapons on them. Go!"
A middle-aged black man went over to Sam, Dean and Ella and frisked them. He found a knife in Dean's boot.
Before he frisked Ella, she held up a fist. "I throw an excellent right hook."
Ronald called over a female worker and Ella was frisked, much to her chagrin. A knife was found in one of her pockets.
"Now what have we here?" Ronald questioned.
Dean, on Sam's look, said, "We're not just gonna walk in here naked."
Ronald took the knives. "Get back there." He dropped the knives in the deposit box and they clattered.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Dean cried as he winced. "We know you don't want to hurt anybody. That's exactly what's gonna happen if you keep waving that canon around, and why don't you let these people go?"
"No! I already told you. If nobody's gonna stop this thing, then I've got to do it myself."
"Hey, we believe you!" Ella told him. "That's why we're here."
"You don't believe me. Nobody believes me! How could they?"
"Come here," Dean said.
"What? No."
"You're holding the gun, boss, you're calling the shots. I just want to tell you something. Come here." Ronald carefully approached and leaned in. "It's the bank manager," Dean said quietly.
"What?"
"Why do you think we've got these getups, huh? We've been monitoring the cameras in the back. We saw the bank manager, we saw his eyes."
"His laser eyes?"
"Yes. No. No! No, look, we're running out of the, okay? We've got to find him before he changes into someone else."
"Like I'm gonna listen to you. You're a damn liar."
Ella stood cautiously, hands out, with an irritated expression. Dean tried pulling her back, but she shrugged him off.
"I'll shoot you! Get down!" Ronald ordered.
"Take me," Ella said. "Okay? Take me with you, take me as a hostage. But we gotta act fast. Because the longer we just sit here the more time he has to change." She paused a beat. "Look at me, dude. I believe you. You're not crazy. There really is something inside this bank."
Dean stood as well. "You take her hostage, you're taking me as well."
Ronald took a moment to think. "All right. You two come with me. But everyone else gets in the vault!"
Outside the bank, a policeman paced, then went around the corner where several police cars were waiting. "Come on, move, move!"
VAULT ROOM
Ronald ushered the hostages, including Sam, into the vault. "Come on, move, move! Move, move!" He looked to Dean. "And you lock it up."
Dean started moving the heavy door shut. "It's okay, everyone. Just stay cool." He shrugged at Sam in apology, while Ella gave a tiny smile, then slammed the door shut.
A young redhead, Sherry, stared after him. "Who is that man and girl?"
"They're my brother and friend," Sam replied worriedly.
"He's so brave. So is she."
Sam very nearly rolled his eyes.
OFFICE
Ronald preceded Dean and Ella into a series of offices. Dean and Ella had removed their uniform jackets to reveal flannel shirts.
"Check behind the desk," Dean said.
As Dean and Ella checked a back room, Ronald fell and yelled. Dean and Ella came back out, eyes darting. Ronald was lying on the floor next to a slimy pile of skin.
He screamed and stood, pointing his gun at it. "What the hell is that?"
Dean turned a lamp on the pile. "Oh, great." He paused. "When it changes form, it sheds its old skin. So now it could be anybody again."
Ronald picked up a piece of skin and smelled it. "It's so, it's so weird. Its robot skin is so lifelike."
Ella glanced up at him. "Okay, let's get something straight. It's not a Mandroid. It's a shapeshifter."
"Shapeshifter?"
"Yes. I mean, it's human, more or less. Has human drives, and in this case it's money. But it generates its own skin, it can shape it to match someone else's features, you know, taller, shorter, male-"
"So it, it kills someone and then takes their place."
"Kills them, doesn't kill them, I don't think it really matters," Dean said.
"What are you doing? Where'd you get that?"
Ella glanced at Ronald. "You really think I'm gonna roam around where a monster is without a knife?"
Dean picked up a letter opener from the desk and examined it before letting out a sigh of relief. "Nice." He turned to Ronald. "You remember the wold werewolf stories? Pretty much came from these guys. Silver's the only thing she and I've seen that hurts them." He strode out the door. "Come on, Ronald."
Ronald grimaced at the skin, then followed Dean and Ella, grinning.
EXT. BANK
A helicopter, a S.W.A.T. police vehicle, and the Channel 8 News van joined the scene outside. A red car pulled up, and a middle-aged man in a suit and long coat got out. He went into the command van, where several other officers were seated around monitors. A uniformed officer was stirring a cup of coffee.
"How we doing?" the detective asked.
"Another day in paradise," the officer replied.
"No one's come out yet?"
"This guy locked himself in. First thing he did."
The detective chuckled. "All right. Cut the power."
BANK HALLWAY
Ronald was following Dean and Ella down a wider hallway, still chuckling.
"What are you, nuts?" Dean asked.
"That's just it," Ronald said. "I'm not nuts. I was so scared that I was losing my marbles. But this is real! I mean, I, I was right! Except for the Mandroid thing. Thank you."
"Yeah, don't mention it."
Suddenly, the power cut out and a few emergency lights clicked on.
"No, no, no, no, no," Ella muttered, her voice growing louder with each no.
"What? What is it?"
"They cut the power. My guess is their way of saying hi."
"Who?"
"The cops."
"The cops?!"
Dean stopped. "Well, you weren't exactly a smooth criminal about this, Ron. I mean, you didn't even secure the security guard. He probably called them."
"Well, I, I, didn't think to-"
"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." He took a breath. "It's not looking good, Ron."
Ronald flinched at a noise, bringing the rifle up.
"Did you hear that?" Dean and Ella questioned.
VAULT
It was dark in the vault, and a few of the hostages were fanning themselves. Sherry was still babbling to Sam, who continued to roll his eyes.
"Has your brother always been so, um, wonderful?" Sherry asked. "I mean, staring down that gun. And you know, the way he and that girl played right into that psycho's crazy head, telling him what he wanted to hear, I mean," Sam stared at her, "he's like, a real hero or, or something."
"Yeah. Yeah," Sam agreed.
The door opened to reveal Dean and Ella who both had a handgun.
"Oh my God, you saved us! You saved us!" Sherry cried.
"Actually, she and I just found a few more," Dean said. "Come on, everybody, let's go. Let's go."
Sherry and the young man stared in confusion as several more people, including the guard from earlier, were herded inside.
"What are you doing?" Sherry asked.
Ella looked at the younger brother. "Sam, look, um, Ronald, Dean and I need to talk to you."
Sam left the vault and Dean shut the door behind him, shrugging apologetically.
"It's shed its skin again," Dean explained. "We don't know when - it could be in the halls, it could be in the vault."
"Great," Sam muttered. "You know, Dean, you are wanted by the police."
"Yeah."
"So even if we do find this damn thing, how the hell are we gonna get out of here?"
"Well, one problem at a time. All right, Ella and I are gonna do a sweep of the whole place, see if we can find any stragglers. Once we get everyone together, we've got to play a little game of find-the-freak, so... here." He handed Sam a silver letter opener. "Found another one of these for you. Now stay here, make sure Ronald doesn't hurt anybody, okay? Help him manage the situation."
"Help him manage? Are you insane?"
Dean looked past Sam and gave Ronald a grinning thumbs-up while Ella gave Ronald a nod.
Ella said quietly to Sam, "Look, Dean and I know this isn't going the way you wanted-"
"Understatement!" Sam shouted.
"Hey! Don't yell at me! But if we invite the cops in right now, Ronald gets arrested, we get arrested, the shifter gets away, probably never find it again, okay?"
Ronald was peering out the window, in plain view, and Sam gestured at him in exasperation.
"Ron! Out of the light!" Dean yelled.
"Seriously?!" Sam cried.
"Yeah, Ron's game plan was a bad plan, I mean, it was a bit of a crazy plan, but right now crazy's the only game in town, okay?"
Dean slapped Sam on the shoulder and left. Ella gave Sam a small wave and left. Sam sighed, leaned back, and rolled his eyes at Ronald.
"Hi, Ronald," Sam greeted.
HALLWAY
Dean and Ella crept along the dark hallways with a flashlight, listening for sounds and watching for movement.
VAULT
The hostages were fanning themselves again, and Sherry looked angry. The guard began clutching his chest and breathing hard.
"I'm going to leave this open," Sam told the hostages. "Give you guys some fresh air, all right? But no one leaves this vault."
The phone rang and Ronald spun around, panicked.
"I don't understand, why are you helping him?" Sherry asked.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Ronald picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"I think I gotta get out of here!" the guard said in a panicked tone.
"Look, I'm very sorry, but you're just going to have to stay put, all right?" Sam replied.
"What? What do you mean, demands?" Ronald asked.
"Ronald! Hang up!"
"No, I, I'm not a bank robber, I-"
"I've really got to get out of here," the guard said.
"Sir, you can't leave!" Sam told him.
"Kind of a crime fighter, I guess," Ronald stated over the phone.
"Ronald!"
The guard was struggling to the door. Several other hostages, including a well-built middle-aged man, helped him.
Sam turned to the hostages. "Look-"
"No, I'm acting alone," Ronald replied.
Sam sighed and went over to the phone, slamming it to hang up. "Ronald? The less the cops know, the better."
"Hey!" a man cried. "I think this dude's having a heart attack!"
"Get a doctor!" a woman yelled.
"Great," Sam said. "Could be our guy. Could be a trick."
"You're just going to let the man die?" the man asked.
"No one's dying in here." He glanced to Ronald. "Cover the door." Sam snatched the phone.
HALLWAY
Dean and Ella continued hunting for the shifter.
COMMAND CENTER
The plain-clothed detective was on the phone with Sam, the officer in the foreground, listening.
"Can you tell me how many hostages this guy's taken?" the detective asked.
VAULT ROOM
"Look, one of the people could be having heart trouble, you need to send in a paramedic," Sam said.
COMMAND CENTER
"Just stay calm, we'll have you folks out of there-"
VAULT ROOM
Sam began shouting. "Just send in a paramedic, okay? And don't try anything else. Please."
"Paramedic?" the man repeated. "We don't have time for that, man!"
"Listen, I, I'm sorry, okay? But nobody's getting out," Ronald said.
"He's dying right in front of you."
"Help!" the guard cried.
HALLWAY
Dean and ella stopped and looked up, seeing a ceiling panel askew. Dean picked up a coat rack and began poking it. He dislodged it and a naked body fell to the floor. Ella jumped back just before she was hit with a limp body part. Dean turned it over; it was the man who'd been helping the guard.
VAULT ROOM
The man, shapeshifter, was still holding up the guard, who was panicked and breathing heavily.
"Come on, man, you've got to open up the door," the shapeshifter said. "We've got to get him out of here."
Ronald cocked the rifle. "Both of you stay where you are."
Dean and Ella returned and whispered, inaudibly, to Sam. The shapeshifter watched them warily.
Sam entered the vault. "You know, Ronald? He's right, we've got to get this man outside. Come on. I've got you." He took the guard from the shapeshifter.
"I'll help you," the shapeshifter offered.
"Oh, I got him, it's cool. Thanks."
Sam got the guard out of the way. Dean and Ella glared at the shapeshifter and approached the vault.
"Hey, can we talk to you for a second?" Dean asked.
The shapeshifter came out. "You got the gun, man, miss. I mean, whatever."
As he got close enough, he attacked Dean, knocking him to the ground and ran into the dark of the hallways. Ella helped Dean up and they chased after the shapeshifter.
"Stop!" Ronald yelled. "Come back here!"
Ronald raced after the three of them, which put him in the open again. Sam saw a laser sight on his back.
Sam shouted. "Get down! Now!"
Sam calls were unheard.
The sniper fired, hitting Ronald squarely in the chest. As he fell, Dean ducked behind a low wall, pulling Ella with him, and Sam watched in horror. Ronald slumped to his knees, then to the floor. He was dead.
The hostages ran out of the vault as Dean and Ella crawled behind another low wall nearer where Ronald fell. Sam ducked down beside him, all three panting.
Sam pulled out the key and handed it to Dean. "Here. Take care of the guard. I'm going after the 'shifter'."
He ran off and Dean crawled towards Ronald. "Sorry, Ron. You did a real good job tracking this thing, you really did."
Ella looked at Ronald with a solemn expression.
Dean patted Ella's shoulder and took the rifle and looked around furtively before running off towards the guard, Ella following.
HALLWAY
Sam approached a broom closet and opened it suddenly to find it empty. He heard something behind him and turned. Sherry screamed; she and the other hostages had gathered, trying to escape.
"Please don't hurt us!" Sherry cried.
"You shouldn't back here right now!" Sam told them. "You're in danger, now go back to the vault! Now!"
The hostages ran back.
EXT. BANK
Holding the guard in front of him and the rifle in his other hand, Dean approached the front door slowly. Outside, several paramedics pulled a stretcher from an ambulance.
"Everything's going to be all right," Ella reassured.
"No, don't shoot!" the guard cried. "Don't shoot! Please!"
"No, no, no, no, no!" Dean yelled. "Don't even think about it!"
"Please! Don't shoot!"
"Son of a -- I said get back! Now!"
COMMAND CENTER
"Two of the hostages," the officer informed. "They seem to have taken over the situation."
"Excuse me?" the detective asked.
EXT. BANK
"Okay, go, go!" Dean and Ella ordered.
The guard stumbled out as Dean and Ella drew back inside, shutting the door and latching it.
Dean and Ella exchanged a look before muttering, "We are so screwed."
Elsewhere, Sam had found another shed skin and called Dean.
Dean picked up his cell. "Yeah?"
"Slipped his skin," Sam informed.
"What?"
"Yeah, bastard shifts fast. A lot faster than the one in St. Louis."
"God, it's like playing the shell game. It could be anybody. Again."
"Yeah, I think most of the employees are out of the vault by now."
"All right, you search every inch of this place, Dean and I'll go round everyone up," Ella said.
EXT. BANK
A black sedan and several trucks pulled onto the scene.
COMMAND CENTER
"Crap," the officer muttered.
"What?" the detective asked.
"The Feds are here."
"Oh, crap."
A mousy, bespectacled man in an FBI jacket entered and stared at them; then a tall, commanding, shaven-headed black man pushed past.
"Lieutenant Robards," the agent said.
"Yeah," Detective Robards replied.
"Special Agent Henriksen."
"Let me guess. You're lead dog now, but you would just love my full cooperation."
"I don't give a rat's ass what you do, you can get a donut and bang your wife, for all I care. What I do need is your S.W.A.T. team locked and loaded."
"Listen, Agent. Something's not right about this. It's, uh, it's not going down like a usual heist."
"That's because it isn't one. You have no idea what you're dealing with, do you? There is a monster in that bank, Robards."
HALLWAY
Sam continued hunting for the shifter.
VAULT ROOM
Dean and Ella herded the hostages back into the vault.
"And I thought you were one of the good guys," Sherry said.
"What's your name?" Dean asked.
"Why would you care?" Sherry shot back.
"My name's Dean. This is Ella."
"I'm Sherry."
"Hi, Sherry. Everything's going to be all right. This will all be over soon."
Dean shut the vault door and spun the lock as the landline rung. He set down his handgun and answered.
Henriksen, still at the command center, said, "This is Special Agent Victor Henriksen."
"Yeah, listen, I'm not really in the negotiating mood right now," Dean replied.
"Good. Me neither. It's my job to bring you in; alive's a bonus but not necessary."
"Whoa. Kinda harsh for a Federal Agent, don't you think?"
"Well, you're not the typical suspect, are you, Dean?" Dean looked horrified and Ella frowned, seeing Dean's expression. "I want you, Sam and Ella out here, unarmed. Or we come in. And yes, I know about Sam and Ella. Bonnies to your Clyde."
"Yeah, well, that part's true, but how'd you even know we were here?"
"Go screw yourself, that's how I knew. It's become my job to know about you, Dean. I've been looking at you for weeks now. I know about the murder in St. Louis, I know about the Houdini act you pulled in Baltimore. I know about the desecrations and the thefts. I know about your dad."
Dean spoke darkly. "Hey, you don't know crap about my dad."
"Ex-marine raised his kids on the road, cheap motels, backwood cabins. Real paramilitary survivalist type. I just can't get a handle on what type of whacko he was. White supremacist, Timmy McVeigh, to-may-to, to-mah-to."
"You got no right talking about my dad like that. He was a hero."
"Yeah. Right. Sure sounds like it. You have one hour to make a decision to make a decision or we come through those doors full automatic."
Dean pounded his forehead in frustration as he hung up the phone.
"Dean, how bad is it?" Ella asked.
"Pretty bad. We got Feds on our tail."
"The Feds? Damn it."
"You can say that again."
COMMAND CENTER
"Scramble your men, five minutes, then we go in," Henriksen said.
"What?" Robards replied. "Henriksen, they've let one out so far. They've hurt no one as far as we can tell."
"You don't know these Winchesters or Ella McKinney. They're dangerous, smart, and expertly trained."
"We can't risk the lives of all those people."
"Trust me, Dean's a greater risk to them than we are."
"This is crazy."
"Crazy's in there. And I just hung up on it."
HALLWAY
Sam saw blood on the floor in front of a closet. He opened it quickly and the half-dressed body of Sherry fell out. Her throat was slit.
"Damn it," Sam muttered.
VAULT ROOM
Sam returned to the vault room where Dean and Ella were waiting and the vault was shut.
"Hey," Dean greeted. "We've got a bit of a problem outside."
"We've got a problem in here," Sam told his brother and friend.
They opened the vault and the hostages pinched and looked around.
"Sherry? We're going to let you go," Dean told her.
"What? Why me?" Sherry asked.
"Uh, as a show of good faith to the Feds, come on."
"Uh, I think I'd, I'd rather stay here, with the others."
Dean approached her. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist."
She looked at them warily; Sam and Ella were fingering the silver blades.
HALLWAY
Sam, Dean and Ella pushed Sherry back to the hallway.
"I thought you were letting me go," Sherry said.
Dean shoved her forward, holding her head and forcing her to look at the body. She began screaming hysterically.
"Is that community theater, or are you just naturally that good?" Dean asked.
"This is the last time you become anybody," Sam told her. "Ever."
"Oh God! Oh." Sherry fainted.
Ella tilted her head. "Well that was weird."
Dean, Sam and Ella stared at her, baffled, then back at the other body. Dean removed the rifle from his shoulder and knelt over dressed!Sherry. He raised the blade with a shrug, but Sam put out a hand to stop him.
"Dean, wait, wait, wait," Sam said. "What's the advantage of this plan? I mean, fainting now wouldn't help it survive."
Dean looked back at the other body. "Huh."
Dean joined Ella in leaning over the other body, then looked up, distracted by a noise. The body opened its eyes. It was the shapeshifter. It lashed out and grabbed Dean and Ella by their throats. As they struggled, stabbing at it, Sherry woke up. She screamed again. Sam went over to her, gathering her in his arms. The shapeshifter kneed Dean in the chin and Ella in the stomach, causing her to double over in pain, and bolted.
Elsewhere, the S.W.A.T. team crept through broken glass and into the bank. Dean and Ella ducked around a corner to avoid one.
In another hallway, they found Sherry, who backed against the wall, terrified.
"Don't shoot!" Sherry cried. "Don't shoot! I work here! Get me out, get me out of here."
Several of them guided her out and two others continued down the hallway. They saw Sam, who stopped.
"Freeze!" the man ordered. "Let me see your hands."
BOILER ROOM
Dean and Ella hunted for the shifter. They turned and both got slammed in the face by the shifter's hands and went down.
HALLWAY
Sam turned abruptly and took out the two armored policemen singlehandedly.
BOILER ROOM
Dean and Ella recovered and settled into a fighting stance. They swiped at it, and it avoided the attack, retaliating. They tussled and Dean got in two head-butts while Ella got in a couple good kicks and punches. Dean slashed at the shifter again and she grabbed his wrist and wrenched it up and he grasped her forearm; her skin slipped off stickily.
"Gross," Dean and Ella commented.
Dean pushed Ella back just before the shifter kicked him hard between the legs, then several times in the face. He grabbed her leg and wrenched her back, shoving her against the wall. Ella punched the shifter in the jaw, shaking her hand from the pain of the punch. The three struggled for a moment before Dean managed to ram the silver blade into the shifter's chest. Ella readied her silver knife in case she had to use it. They heard a sound and flinched, then turned and knelt in front of her.
A uniformed man entered the room and stopped. Dean and Ella looked back, panting.
HALLWAY
Preceded by several officers, Henriksen entered the building, gun out. He strode down the main hallway and they found the body of the first man.
"Male, African American. Goner," the officer noted.
BOILER ROOM
Another officer was kneeling in front of the shapeshifter's body.
"I'm telling you, man," the officer said. "I just walked her out of the bank. She must have a twin sister or something."
HALLWAY
The officer came up behind Henriksen. "Sir? My team said it's secure. They're gone."
"You tell your team to tear it apart," Henriksen ordered. "The ducts, the ceilings, the furnace, everything."
"I don't think that's necessary."
"Why not?"
The officer took Henriksen where two men and a woman were stripped to their underwear, and bra, and handcuffed back-to-back on the floor.
EXT. BANK
Two men and a young woman in S.W.A.T. armor ran out of the bank an through a leveled parking lot. They approached a car and got in it. It was the Impala, and the two men and young woman were Sam, Dean and Ella. They got in and pulled off their helmets and hats, panting heavily.
"We are so screwed," Dean said.
They pulled out of the parking lot and out of town.