Gabriel paced back and forth outside of Crawford Hall. He usually wasn't one for local lore, but this had to be perfect. Flawless. He tugged on the hem of his dress. His target was late. But this had to work. Normally, he'd just conjure an apparition to do the job, but this was special. This needed a more…personal touch. He shook his long, black curls from his face. Where was he? The echoing sound of footsteps reached his ears.

Finally. Professor Cox sure took his sweet time getting here.

Gabriel lifted a shapely leg onto the snow covered cement ledge surrounding the building and began fiddling with the buckle of his beige heel to show as much of his legs and hips as possible. Creating the innocent, barely twenty female student façade had been very easy. He just had to sell it.

Professor Arthur Cox walked up, stopped, and stared for a moment before saying, "Excuse me."

Gabriel whipped his head up and gave the good professor a bright smile. From the look on Cox's face, this would be all too easy. Despite being told to come back later, Gabriel effortlessly flirted his way inside the professor's office with a flare of innocence.

After Gabriel stroked the professor's ego a bit, Cox asked, "What can I help you with? How's the Anscom paper coming?"

Passing as a student of his became a bit harder. Gabriel knew his next move. With a smile, he said, "I have a confession to make."

"Oh, what's that?" Cox asked.

"I'm not really one of your students," Gabriel said, never letting his smile or innocence falter. He should win an Oscar for the performance he was giving.

"Oh, really?" Cox asked, tone patronizing, "Then, why are you here?"

Gabriel paused for a moment. He needed to know he had the professor hooked. He slowly let his smile drop and turned away, saying, "Maybe I should just go."

Cox quickly said, "Wait."

Perfect.

Gabriel turned back towards the professor slowly. This had better work. He'd made out with guys for a lot less, but this really had to work.

Two minutes later, Gabriel, now back in his preferred male, janitor form, locked up the door to Crawford Hall exactly when he needed to. Taking just enough steps forward, Professor Arthur Cox plummeted to the ground directly behind him. He turned around and looked at the corpse splayed on the ground.

If this didn't attract the Winchesters, he didn't know what would.

Gabriel had been aware of the Winchester brothers for a very long time. The plans leading to their birth were as old as the Earth itself. But when they hunted a shapeshifter at the bank near Gabriel's hideout for the night, he learned the boys who were destined to end the world were hunters. Now, this, he had to see.

A little gender bending, some scarred flesh flirting, and a dead professor later, Sam and Dean Winchester checked into a local motel, and Gabriel knew he could start his test.

He wasn't expecting to be the second stop for the boys since 'scene of the crime' was kind of top priority in murders usually. These two, however, when to a bar first, talking to some 'local experts' if you could call a frat boy and a drunk grad student that.

Still, the Winchesters sidled up the steps of Crawford Hall, and it was show time. Time to see what the sons of the apocalypse were made of.

They said they were electricians rewiring some of the offices. Interesting cover story considering how late at night it was that they decided to drop by. Gabriel wasn't exactly blown away by their ingenuity. He played along anyway.

As they walked up to Cox's office, Sam Winchester asked him, "So, how long've you been working here?"

Gabriel wasn't quite sure why the younger Winchester was interested in his job longevity, but he gave them the same shtick he gave everyone he'd implanted memories in upon dropping in on the college, "I've been mopping this floor for six years." Gabriel used his key to unlock the office door. "There you go, guys," he said, letting the 'electricians' inside.

Right away, Sam whipped out a surprisingly functional EMF detector. Gabriel might've looked the other way at the alibi, but this was a blatant display of hunter tech. Who trained these guys?

"What the heck's that for?" Gabriel asked.

He leaned up against the wall as Sam looked at him and said, "Just finding wires in the walls."

At least the kid could think on his feet. "Huh," Gabriel said, "Well, not sure why you're wiring up this office. Not gonna do the professor much good."

Dean looked over at him and asked, "Why's that?"

He decided to throw the boys a bone and start making this party a bit more interesting. "He's dead," Gabriel said with as much nonchalance as possible.

"What happened?" Dean asked. The older hunter walked past Gabriel and joined Sam in looking around the office.

"He went out that window, right there," Gabriel said.

Sam looked at Gabriel, and the archangel hoped that look meant he was starting to be a suspect. Sam stepped towards Gabriel, a little too close for comfort, and Gabriel side stepped him, taking Sam's former position.

Sam asked, "Yeah? Were you working that night?"

Gabriel was definitely a suspect. Excellent. To seal the deal, Gabriel said, "I'm the one who found him."

"You see it happen?" Sam asked.

Gabriel looked over to where Dean found the bowl of caramel toffees. "Nope," he answered, "I just saw him come up here…" The archangel saw how intently Sam was staring at him, like he was hanging onto Gabriel's every word. He ducked his gaze and tried to finish his statement with a very coherent, "and, uh, well…"

"What?" Sam asked.

Gabriel risked looking up at the hunter, whose stare hadn't diminished at all, and damn it, this test wasn't supposed to get those hazel eyes stuck in his head. He miraculously carried on his charade by saying, "He wasn't alone."

"Who was he with?" Dean asked around a bite of caramel.

If Gabriel wasn't directing this play, he'd feel very interrogated. He looked over at Dean and said, "He was with a young lady. I told the cops about her, but I guess they never found her." The archangel's eyes wandered back to Sam's, and he mentally kicked himself.

"You saw this girl go in, huh?" Sam asked, "But did you ever see her come out?"

Sam's eyebrows knit together in this weird combination of curious and pleading, and Gabriel quickly averted his gaze. "Now that you mention it," he said, "No."

"You ever see her before or around?" Sam asked.

Gabriel looked at Sam and delivered the final touch by saying, "Not her."

"What do you mean?" Dean asked.

"I don't mean to cast dispersions on a dead guy," Gabriel said, "But, uh, Mr. Morality here? He brought a lot of girls over here. Got more ass than a toilet seat."

Dean laughed loudly, letting Gabriel know exactly what strings he could pull with him. Sam, however, took the clue for what it was. His lack of reaction to Gabriel's joke left him confused. He'd have to figure out Sam a bit more later on.

"One more thing. This building. It has four stories, right?" Sam asked.

Gabriel smiled, knowing his play on the Room 669 lore worked perfectly. "Yeah," he said.

"So, there wouldn't be a room 669?" Sam asked. Yep. This trick was the best trick he'd done. The boys tied the girl to the lore, realized the lore was phony, and he'd be the only suspect. Maybe these boys were better than he thought. He fully expected stakes by sundown the next day.

"'Course not," Gabriel answered Sam's question, "Why do you ask?"

"Just curious," Sam said with a smile, "Thanks."

"Sure," Gabriel said.

The boys left pretty quickly after that, and Gabriel waited to see if they knew what they were up against.

Once he heard them consider that the professor was just a jumper, Gabriel jumped right back in. With a snap of his fingers from his temporary apartment a block away, Gabriel froze Sam's laptop on . The archangel was actually surprised at the lack of porn on Sam's laptop. Was the dude a saint? Still, he hoped the small trick would make the Winchesters suspicious.

But of course, Sam instantly blamed Dean, and Dean didn't even have the decency to defend himself. Gabriel knocked his forehead against the wall of his apartment and decided to proceed to phase two.

He flew to Crawford Hall, making his wings sound as much like a flying saucer as he could manage, just in time to catch the frat boy the hunters spoke with earlier out on a walk. Awesome. The sound caught Frat Boy's attention, but he quickly shook it off. So, Gabriel flew past him again. He wanted this guy as shaken up as possible. The boy searched the sky, nervous. Good. There wasn't much the Trickster enjoyed more than hazing a hazer.

Gabriel allowed a fraction of his true form to shine through his vessel, spotlighting the kid with blinding white light. Of course, the kid tried running. Hilarious, really. Outrunning an archangel. Adorable. He sent a harmless crackle of lightning down at him and lifted Frat Boy off the ground. Gabriel hadn't faked too many alien abductions, but this was pretty fun. He'd have to hit some rural areas and really go crazy with this later.

Quickly, the boy's screams grated on Gabriel's nerves, so he knocked him unconscious with a single thought. Inserting some lovely memories of probing and slow dancing with Martians, the archangel left Frat Boy on the ground in a perfect circle of dead grass.

He'd wake up in an hour, the Winchesters would know it couldn't have been aliens and maybe get closer to the game at hand, and Gabriel would have a reason to listen to "Lady in Red" when he got back to his apartment. Maybe he'd even dance with the Jack Russell terrier he conjured the night before.

Everything was coming up roses.

Except for the boys not having even an iota of what was going on.

How hard was this? Just deserts? It had been his MO from back when he was Loki. Did they not know mythology? They were hunters for crying out loud.

Gabriel sighed and petted the dog on his lap. Maybe the boys needed some motivation. The Trickster snapped his fingers and smiled as Sam's laptop appeared on the counter. They had to get it now. Pranks, ironic traumatic incidents, it was like leaving his calling card.

But it became apparent that Gabriel was going to have to leave his name in neon lights.

Sam blamed Dean right away for the missing laptop because no one else could've taken it. No one could've set up a fake haunting or created an elaborate alien abduction either. Idiots, the both of them.

They were so focused on fighting each other, they weren't seeing the bigger picture. They were a lot more like Michael and Lucifer than Gabriel cared to think about.

Though Sam's comment about messing with the Impala sounded promising. If phase three didn't work, he'd fuck with Dean's car. No problem. If they didn't figure it out, he'd hurt the car just as punishment for being oblivious.

Phase three, while Gabriel had wanted to handle this whole thing personally, required a more removed approach. Like hell was he scooting through the sewer on his belly only to eat a dude. No. A well placed watch, an imitation watch to be specific, and Mr. Animal Testing was conjured gator chow.

Gabriel got to sit back and watch. He was starting to wonder how ridiculous he'd have to get to grab the Winchesters' attention. Alligators in the sewer? Come on. There was only one way this stuff could be happening, and the bozos just weren't getting it. So, to Gabriel's immense disappointment, Sam and Dean called Bobby Singer.

The apocalypse looked like it was going to be very anti-climactic at this point. They were the ones, but wow, did they fail his test with flying colors. At least they had their looks, right? Even so, they'd failed his third attempt.

Gabriel took great pleasure snapping the air out of the Impala's tires. For added entertainment, Gabriel manifested Sam's money clip and dropped it next to the poor car. He'd let Dean jump to conclusions and maybe eat some popcorn as he watched the fallout. It'd be great.

Hopefully, Bobby would be able to get the boys on track. But if they couldn't handle a simple Trickster case, Gabriel had little hope for the end of the world. Luckily, they had time. No one had broken that first seal yet.

Thankfully, Bobby did figure it out. Gabriel was only slightly offended at the term "demigod." Loki was a god, plain and simple. There was no "demi" in there. Even "archangel" was better than "demigod." At least he knew what a trickster was.

Gabriel grabbed his issue of the Weekly World News. It was always such a good source of inspiration. He considered doing one more prank just to celebrate the Winchesters finally making sense of their whacky week. Cannibals and chainsaws looked promising. The school chef who'd been serving uncooked meat wouldn't know what hit him.

"Oh, that's a good one," Gabriel said mostly to himself but partially to his dog. He put the paper aside and whistled for the dog. He really had to get around to naming this guy. "Come here," he said as the dog jumped off the couch.

Maybe more murder wasn't the way to celebrate.

"Could you eat?" Gabriel asked the dog, "I could eat. Come on."

Instant feast was probably his favorite way to use his begrudgingly angelic powers. He put his dog down, grabbed his glass of wine, and went to inspect the fruits, candies, and pies he'd manifested.

Delicious. This was a celebration.

"Something's missing," Gabriel said. Company. He smirked and created two, gorgeous female illusions.

Now, this. This was celebrating.

In fact, it was such a good celebration, he made a point of telling the boys about it the next day. He wasn't expecting much of a reaction from them since they knew what he was, but he'd been hoping for something. No laughter from Dean, no smile from Sam. Nothing. The way Sam's eyes averted from his actually sort of bother Gabriel. It shouldn't have, but it did. It certainly made it that much more irksome to carry on his janitor charade.

When Sam excused himself because he "forgot something in the truck," Gabriel knew exactly what Sam was going to do. Good. They needed to get on with it. He'd stayed in this town too long. The last thing he needed was Heaven to catch his scent.

After the Winchesters left, though, things changed. Gabriel looked out the window in Crawford Hall, watching something very surprising. Sam Winchester was defending him.

"Just 'cause he reads the Weekly World News doesn't mean he's our guy. I mean you read it, too," Sam said, talking over Dean.

"I'm telling you, it's him," Dean said.

Sam said quickly, "Look, I just think we need some hard proof. That's all."

Gabriel didn't know what to make of this. It was him, it was clearly him. He was 100% definitely the Trickster. Why was Sam questioning it?

"Alright, another thing Bobby mentioned was that these suckers have a metabolism like an insect, a real sweet tooth," Dean said.

"Well, I didn't find any candy bars," Sam said defensively, "Or sugar. Not even Equal."

"Probably 'cause you missed something," Dean said shortly.

Sam snapped, "I don't miss things."

"Oh, right," Dean said flippantly, "'cause you're Mr. Perfect."

Gabriel wondered if he should create some popcorn. This was starting to get good.

Sam asked, incredulous, "What? Are you really still pissed at me 'cause of what the Trickster did?"

Gabriel leaned forward on the window frame, watching their squabble escalate. As Sam left to investigate his apartment, Gabriel was very confused. It wasn't like he'd bonded with Sam while they were here. Maybe Sam was just being thorough. Maybe he empathized with the Trickster. It sort of made sense that the boy with the demon blood would feel an understanding towards a monster. Still weird.

Given the argument and how readily Dean and Sam turned their backs on each other, Gabriel was strongly reminded of his brothers. It was worrisome to say the least.

The archangel shook himself from his thoughts and hurried to get ready for Dean. There was no way the older hunter would wait for Sam to get back, and Gabriel wanted to be prepared.

Surprisingly, it took till nightfall for Dean to jump the gun. About time, too. Gabriel was getting bored. He cranked the volume on the sexy music and waited for Dean to walk in. The stage was elaborate, the girls were beautiful, the lighting was perfect. He even threw in some lava lamps for good measure.

Time to see how distractable Dean Winchester really was.

Dean very reluctantly acknowledged the girls weren't real.

Gabriel wasn't quite sure if that was going to be a deal breaker or not, but when Dean said he'd have to pass, the Trickster sweetened the deal. "They're a peace offering," he said. Time to pull back the curtain. "I know what you and your brother do. I've been around a while, run into your kind before," Gabriel said.

"Well," Dean said, grinning, "Then you know I can't let you just keep hurting people."

Gabriel rolled his eyes emphatically. "Come on! Those people got what was coming to them, hoisted on their own petards," he said, "But you and Sam—I like you. I do. So treat yourself. Long as you want. Just long enough for me to move onto the next town."

Dean didn't even debate it before saying, "Yeah, I don't think I can let you do that."

Well, he got points for morality. That was something. Maybe threats would work where bribes wouldn't. "I don't want to hurt you," Gabriel said, "And you know that I can."

"Look, man, I—I got to tell you, I dig your style, alright, I mean, I do," Dean said, glancing at the gorgeous women, "And the slow dancing alien—" Dean laughed, and Gabriel enjoyed that his gag was appreciated.

"One of my personal favorites, yeah," the Trickster said.

"But, uh, I can't let you go," Dean said.

No bribery, no threats. Gabriel wasn't sure if he should be impressed or pity the idiot. He had no idea what was coming to him. That righteous attitude of his would be the death of him.

And everyone, really.

"Too bad. Like I said, I like you," Gabriel said, "Sam was right. You shouldn't have come alone." He let his playful demeanor drop, but Dean didn't react right away.

"Well, I'll agree with you there," Dean said.

The auditorium door opened, revealing Sam Winchester standing there, holding a blood tipped stake. Bobby entered through the other door.

Well, it was about damn time.

"That fight you guys had outside," Gabriel asked, "That was a trick?" They'd been pretty convincing, he had to admit. It made more sense of Sam defending him, actually. He was pretending. Made perfect sense. He didn't quite understand why he felt bothered by that.

Dean nodded in response to Gabriel's question.

"Hmm," Gabriel said, "Not bad." It did take quite a bit to trick the Trickster. Dean pulled a stake out of his jacket that matched the others'. Yeah, they'd tricked him, but that didn't mean squat when Judgment Day came around. Gabriel grinned and asked, "But do you want to see a real trick?"

A masked cannibal with a chainsaw appeared behind Sam. Gabriel really needed to thank the editor of Weekly World News for the good ideas. Maybe he'd send a gift basket.

Dean rushed at Gabriel with the stake, but one of the gorgeous ladies stopped him by ripping his arm back. Chainsaw Guy swung his weapon at Sam's head, which he skillfully ducked and promptly fell to the ground out of the way. The black haired babe tossed Dean at the stage in a feat of effortless strength.

Gabriel couldn't contain his laughter as he watched the spectacle with great enthusiasm. The end of the world wasn't going to be easy, so he felt no reason to go easy on them now. Bobby rushed forward with his stake only to have it sliced in half by Chainsaw. The blonde beauty dragged Dean to his feet and punched him at the other gorgeous woman.

This was better than going to the movies.

Sam tackled Chainsaw to the ground, and Gabriel started to feel like these numb-skulls might have a shot. The ladies continued to beat on Dean until the hunter found himself colliding with the front row.

"Nice toss, ladies!" Gabriel applauded, "Nice show." The archangel stood and said, "Dean. Dean, Dean, Dean. I did not want to have to do this." Before he knew what hit him, Dean shoved a stake into his chest.

Well, then.

Maybe the apocalypse would be more interesting after all.

Gabriel faked a pained noise.

Dean said quietly, "Me neither."

The Trickster's mirages faded, Gabriel subtly de-materializing them so the Winchesters would think they won. Dean pulled the stake out of Gabriel's chest and threw the Trickster's copy back against the seats, dead.

Gabriel rolled his shoulders on the roof of Crawford Hall as he healed the hole in his chest. Got to love the bait and switch.

As the hunters drove away, the lone archangel stood over his dead copy. He watched it slowly fade away and took a bite of his candy bar. Yes, the end of the world would be very interesting.