Chapter Text
Dean had been doing research for hours, running into dead end after dead end. There did seem to be supernatural activity in this universe, but he wasn’t finding any leads to help with his problem. There also seemed to be a smaller hunting community in this universe, or at least a far more concealed one.
Dean had found some obvious evidence of his usual cases. Mysterious deaths, sulfuric smells, demonic possession, all of the evidence was there, but nothing actually backing it up. He had been researching nephilim to no avail, all the information was completely biblical and not in the way he wanted it. He’d tried researching the multiverse, but much of the stuff he found was just referencing “The Battle of New York” and how a portal opened in the sky. This led him down a whole other rabbit hole about the aliens, and these mysterious new “Avengers”. Just as he was about to press ‘search’ on “Avengers-New York” into Google, Tony appeared over his shoulder.
“Just hold off on that for now, we’ll discuss it later, do you have more ghosts and ghouls to try researching?” Tony said, turning back to his work.
A small bit of mistrust and anger rose within Dean. Was Tony hiding something? But Dean forced himself to realize that he didn’t really know Tony at all. Tony had been kind enough to give him a room and resources without questioning his frankly insane story. Dean couldn’t stay mad. Tony said they’d discuss it later, so Dean chose to believe him.
Tony had been puttering throughout the lab as Dean had been researching. Dean wasn’t sure what Tony was working on, but he seemed to be pretty serious about it. Tony had occasionally been muttering to himself or possibly talking to JARVIS, Dean wasn’t sure which.
Dean turned back to the computer, he decided to try looking into witchcraft. He’d been avoiding it so far, it was always one of the more confusing things to him. There were so many different types, and often people touting “witchcraft” were just burning a bit of incense to ward off bad vibes or whatever else. It was also usually Sam’s thing, he was better at this, he could’ve found a way home if he were here. Dean shook this thought from his head, he’d never find a way home if he thought for too long about anything at all. He began his research by simply typing in “witchcraft”, as expected it was only a bunch of random stores or fake spells. Dean sighed, this was going to take a while.
***
Dean spent another 40 minutes spiraling down a rabbit hole of witchcraft. There were things about historical magic and spells, a few modern covens, some ancient cursed ruins, and something about a group of alleged sorcerers in Nepal, but none of it was overly helpful to Dean. He was in the middle of scrolling through the scanned version of some old tome on energy and souls when he was interrupted.
“Hey Buffy the Vampire Slayer, could you come over here for a sec?” Tony asked.
Dean turned to see Tony still bent over one of the countertops. Dean sighed, and chuckled slightly at the new nickname. He wasn’t getting anywhere with witches, he might as well see what Tony’s got going on.
As Dean walked over, he saw about 4 different screens running in front of Tony. They had equations, graphs, and other numbers swirling around on them. Every so often Tony would click and enlarge a certain screen before going back to tinkering with whatever was laying on the table in front of him. Tony spoke again as Dean got up to the table.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about radiation physics or spacetime, do you?”
Dean just laughed.
“Can’t say I do.”
“Bummer, I’ll break it down as best I can then. Banner would be better at this than me, maybe he’ll swing by later. But anyway, you know what radiation is right?”
Dean nodded.
“Ok so radiation is energy, and some theoretical physicists think that there are unique radiation signatures for alternate universes. So I’ve been having JARVIS analyze the energy signatures from where you appeared yesterday. There are traces of traces of some kind of unidentified radiation, but it could just be weird remnants from the attack 6 days ago. So I built this.”
Tony held up the small device he’d been working with from the table. It was long and cylindrical with a slit down the side, with a few stray wires hanging out of it.
“Am I supposed to know what that is?” Dean scoffed.
“Not at all,” Tony responded. “I just made it up, but it should be able to detect trace amounts of radiation, hopefully even unknown stuff.”
“Ok…” Dean trailed off, unsure of where Tony was going.
“Hold this for a second,” Tony said, handing Dean the device.
Dean hesitantly grabbed the device, carefully avoiding some of the exposed wiring. Tony adjusted the way Dean was holding it, turning the slit to face Dean. Tony turned back to the counter and started pressing buttons, muttering slightly to himself. Dean was starting to feel uneasy.
“What are you-” Dean began to ask.
He was interrupted by a small electrical jolt surging through his hand. He gave a small, surprised yell and dropped the tube. Tony managed to catch it just before it hit the ground. Dean shook out his hand, it hadn’t hurt so much as surprised him.
“What hell was that for?” Dean said, anger lining his words.
“Sorry, I just needed a way to scan you for the same radiation from the upper floors.”
“You couldn’t have told me that?”
Tony simply shrugged, turning back to his screens. Dean just shook his head and sighed, frustrated. The screens in front of Tony had charts spinning and whirling. Tony cracked a small smile, watching one of the screens.
“What is it?” Dean asked, trying to decipher the bizarre wavelengths on the screen.
“You have trace amounts of radiation that match the unidentified signature from yesterday.”
“So what does that mean? For me?”
“It means we might be able to identify where this radiation came from, maybe even pinpoint your home universe,” Tony was still smiling. “And scientifically this could be one of the biggest breakthroughs in multiversal science ever.”
Dean felt his hopes rising, despite his attempts to suppress them.
“Do you think I’d be able to find a way back using this… science?”
“I can’t say, but there’s a possibility that it could be the key to generating multiversal travel. Lucky for us, we have one of the greatest radiation scientists of all time living part-time in the building. I’ll have Banner take a look at it as well.”
Dean hadn’t expected to find the answer through science, but he was open to any possibility. Tony looked down checking his watch.
“We’ve been down here a while, what’d you say we get out of the basement for a bit? You like burgers?”
Dean could use a break, the research was getting tiring. He gave Tony a nod. Tony gestured for him to follow and they made their way out of the lab and back out past the cars. Tony looked at Dean as they walked.
“Having any luck in the HooDoo-VooDoo department?”
Dean scoffed, and shook his head.
“Unfortunately there’s nothing too promising, not to mention VooDoo is a type of magic pretty outside of this wheelhouse.”
Tony side eyed him, before shaking his head and exhaling slightly. They walked in silence for a few more moments before Tony spoke up again.
“If you need help with research you can just ask JARVIS, he can scour every corner of the internet if you need it.”
Dean nodded.
“Thanks, I might. Usually Sam-” Dean stopped abruptly. “Uh, usually I’m not the only one doing the research.”
Dean stared straight ahead as they entered the elevator. He felt Tony’s gaze on him, but he didn’t care to return it. He didn’t like being studied. Tony pressed the ground-level button on the elevator. JARVIS broke the silence in the elevator.
“Pardon the interruption, sir, but Dr. Banner has just arrived.”
“Thank you JARVIS. How do you feel about a working lunch instead?” Tony asked Dean.
“Fine with me.”
“JARVIS, have Happy grab some food and bring it to the lab. Tell Banner we’ll be up in just a moment.”
“On it, sir.”
Tony pressed another, higher floor on the elevator, and they continued to ascend in quiet anticipation.