Thank you so much for the lovely reviews everyone :) I hope I do justice to every character, especially Gabriel since its my first time writing him! It was challenging as well as stimulating to try and grasp his vibrant frame of mind and put down my ideas.

I started this story to polish my writing skills and also to teach myself to write shorter (and equally expressive) chapters. *sigh* I don't know how I ended up crossing a word count of more than 3,000, again… I wanted to make this a series of short and interesting events. Oh well :) hope its just as nice!

Disclaimer- I don't own anything. It would be great to have a paintball tournament with the guys though! One can dream :D

Enjoy and please, please, please don't forget to review!

One should never trap the Trickster and then set him free thinking there'd be no consequences, ever.

And so it began.

Getting back at two hunters and one celestial warrior who dared to step on an archangel's hallowed toes: Phase- I.

Identity swap is always fun. The Trickster nodded in approval at his own proposal, surveying the vicinity of the vacant motel's parking yard and snapped his fingers in the unmistakable impression of a charming magician. He must have fancied himself as one of them too, as it would have been evident by any bystander- had there been one. He swished his bloody crimson appeared-out-of-thin-air velvet cape around himself as he briskly walked away from the place in a discreet fashion with the added flair of a departing artist's swagger.

With an expert flick of his right wrist, the charlatan being tossed something akin to fluorescent (magical?) dust towards a particular motel room without even looking back.

The cloud of glittery dust wafted and turned, looped and swooped till it slipped under the gap below the door and flitted around the room before hovering over the occupants in three wispy ribbons. It seemed to tickle them on the sensitive skin of their forehead and cheeks as the slumbering figures tried to brush the ghostly tendrils off. The dusty ribbons then floated upwards where they met at a cobweb-free spot and intertwined among themselves, their glittery sheen radiating in vigor and panache. Just as the only non-mortal one of the room's occupants began to stir from his passive state, the shimmering mass once again divided into three ghostly strands and invaded their respiratory crevices just as each of the occupants began another random motion of inhalation.

The sleeping figurers jerked in their places for a fraction of a second before resuming their sleep except for the immortal one whose oceanic eyes snapped open and he jumped to his feet, taking on a fighting stance. Sapphire irises flicked in every direction, trying to identify the potential invasion.

Nothing.

A glance at the two sleeping mortals, a slight confused tilt of the head, a quick peek at the salt lines… no, it was all fine. The blue-eyed creature sat back down and continued his watch. However, he couldn't help but wonder… had I fallen asleep? And the query worried him a great deal, since he was not supposed to sleep. Not ever.

The shimmery wisps which had entered each of the occupants suddenly shone inside them, making their physical bodies glow momentarily before the prior darkness returned again. The sapphire irises were hidden behind tired eyelids so they didn't catch the momentary radiance.

Outside, the caped figure smiled in satisfaction as he felt the happenings in the room. He still was a long way from accomplishing the musings on his list but this was a start. Making sure that there was no one around, he waved his arms in exaggerated gestures in the empty space before him and conjured an eight-legged steed upon which he intended to make his grand exodus.

He still had an hour before sunrise when the occupants of the room would arise. Till then, he was going to raid some over-night candy store in the guise of the murderous possessed toddler from the superhit horror movie series. The scaring would be just for fun. He wasn't going to harm anyone so long as they gave him sweet stuff.

An hour later, in the previously mentioned motel room.

Dean raised a heavy, lumbering arm and wiped his sleepy eyes with the back of his hand. He yawned and stretched, wondering why his butt and lower back felt more sore than usual. He didn't remember doing anything out of the ordinary the previous night. Hmph. Whatever…

He turned his head on one side to look at his younger brother. He had to check on him and make sure he was safely tucked in his bed even if he was all grown up now. It was the first thing he did every morning. As his squinty hazel eyes moved into focus, fighting against the protest of sleep, his neat-yet-masculine (he refused to call them elegant) eye-brows crashed together in a suspicious frown.

His brother, or rather his brother's bed along with him was not there. With lightning speed he vaulted himself off his resting place and threw a threatening glance on his other side, only to feel instant relief.

Sasquatch Sammy was snoring lightly under the rumpled blanket with one lanky leg splayed out, hanging over the edge of the mattress.

Phew. Had a real scare. He admitted silently as he stretched leisurely and turned towards the bathroom. And this time he frowned in confusion. He was sure that when he had used the bathroom the last night, it was on his right. Now there was a vacant wall.

What the hell…

He took a step forward to check if he had been right or if he was dreaming, when his other foot tripped on something and he went tumbling to the ground in a crashing heap.

Some loose fabric went down along with him and essentially covered his face hindering his line of sight. He heard a startled jerk from his brother's bed followed by a muffled cry of surprise.

Shit. He's up.

"Wha- Who? De-Dean! Are you alright?" Sam's urgent call was half-muffled by his still-drowsy bearing.

It fell silent for a while during which Sam realized he couldn't see his brother anywhere.

"DEAN! WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Down here, moron."

A few shuffling footsteps and a sigh of relief.

"Dude, you scared me. What are you doing on the floor?"

"I'm taking a shower. Don't you dare come in." Dean's voice was calm before they raised in pitch, "What does it look like I am doing on the floor? I tripped and fell down, idiot!"

"Geez… what's wrong with you sunshine?" Sam's petulant pout could be felt in his voice. "Hey, isn't that Cas's coat?"

"What coat?"

Sam kneeled down, reached out and picked up the offending fabric off Dean's face. He could see again. Woopee.

"This coat."

Dean turned over on his back and sat up, before looking at the material in his brother's hand. It was feathery ass's ugly coat, alright.

"Uh… are you feeling alright? I could swear you sounded just like Dean…" Sam's voice sounded different after his hearing and vision was freed of the muffling obstruction. He slowly turned his head upwards, only for his eyes to meet the concerned hazel eyes of his brot-

It took a second to register in his mind that he was looking at the face of a very handsome man. Not his brother. A very handsome man who was also vaguely familiar…

Why, Dean thought to himself as he grinned cockily, he's almost as good-looking as me.

"Cas? What are you staring at me like that for?" the good-looking man asked awkwardly.

Eh? Cas? Me? Dean thought confusedly.

And then it hit him. It was a bloody shifter. Again.

Dean re-affirmed his glare at the handsome man who put on a real good show of looking genuinely concerned and at present, genuinely confused.

"Why are you glaring at-"

The man never got to complete his sentence as Dean's mallet of a fist his him square in the crook of his jaw and fell backwards.

Gnashing his teeth, Dean jumped to his feet and waited for the handsome man to recover.

"How many times are your kind going to wear my face?! Damned shifters!"

The handsome man didn't get up immediately but he wore a sincerely hurt expression on his face. This angered Dean even more. He moved to punch him again but stopped when he heard the handsome man speak.

"Man… that was a solid one. What the hell is wrong with you Cas?" the handsome man whined, "I swear if this is a prank set up by Dean, I can't say how shocked I am that he actually convinced you to pull this off… ow, my face…"

"That's my face, you bastard!"

And as Dean reached down to grab the throat of the man who was wearing his face, his eyes landed on his hand. His fair, smooth, blemish-free and un-tanned hand. He switched to look at his other hand and with mounting trepidation, realized that they weren't his… they weren't the hands he remembered he had.

He looked at himself, utterly confused to see that he was dressed in a dark suit complete with a tie hanging askew. His arms were layered in another tan colored item of clothing. With increasing horror he realized he was dressed in Castiel's- no, Jimmy's, he corrected himself- no, Castiel's, he corrected himself again (since it was the angel's consciousness that was dominant) clothes.

And those pale hands looked like the feathery dude's too… his hands flew up to his head where they got entangled with the curly strands that were alien to his sensations.

How? When? Whyyyyyy? His breathe came out in panicky hitches as he placed his- no Castiel's- hands on his- no Castiel's- chest to steady himself. When I look in the mirror, I better still look like me…

A deep-pitched scream jolted him back to reality. The shifter wearing his face was shrieking in sheer terror, pointing towards the other bed, on which he'd supposedly slept. But it was further away from the door so it had to be Sam's bed.

Sam! Dean jumped, suddenly realizing he had been too busy talking with his doppelganger that he'd forgotten to check if his brother was alright. However, he sighed in relief when he saw his gigantic brother sitting up in bed with an extremely puzzled look on his face. The expression looked nearly out of character for him, but Dean attributed it to the shifter's ear-piercing screech that had stunned his brother out of his slumber. The brown wavy locks were all over his face and he looked as if he had been through a blender.

"What the hell are you?!" the shifter still wearing Dean's face demanded from the sleepy looking Sam as it held a bottle of holy water and a silver knife in his hands threateningly.

Dean was aghast. Had they grown resistant to silver like mosquitoes had gotten used to DDT?!

Sleepy Sam reached for his hair and tried to get the locks in one place, all while looking incredibly lost. He paid no heed to Shifter Dean who was yelling more warnings as every second ticked by. He only seemed interested in himself… or rather his long and unending legs, staring at them as if he was seeing them for the first time.

He stood up on his feet, slowly raising his eyes to look at the other two men. He took a few unsteady steps and stopped when Shifter Dean threatened to shoot him. Sleepy Sam tilted his head in habitual likeness of someone they were very much aware of.

"It looks like we have a troublesome situation at hand." He spoke finally, "I can tell my brother Gabriel has been here."

Shifter Dean and the other guy knowing himself to be Dean but was in Castiel's clothes turned to look at each other before making a mad dash for the full-length mirror in the bathroom.

Sleepy Sam looked on at the tiny puff of dust the two bumbling bodies had left behind that was extremely reminiscent of a typical Roadrunner episode. The little cloud seemed to take on an anthropomorphic face and snigger at him before vanishing in a silent poof. His eyes widened for an instant as he finally realized what the Trickster had done.

Complete body swap between the members of Team Free Will.

So if he had indeed seen Jimmy Novak swinging a solid one at Shifter Dean, Sleepy Sam realized with a fast escalating crabbiness, that Jimmy was Dean and Dean was Sam. That explained his long limbs that seemed to have stretched overnight.

He frowned, wondering how it was even possible for him to occupy Sam's body without the angel asking for his permission first. Angels do need the consent of their vessels. Speaking of which, Sam was actually Lucifer's vessel. Then how come he, Castiel, was currently residing in the younger Winchester's body?

On second thought, Gabriel could do anything he pleased. He had been just this annoying even when they were fledglings. His lunatic archangel big brother just didn't play fair. And now with his status as Loki merged with his inherent archangel powers, he was going to be a nasty pain in the butt.

Castiel, as Sam, decided he might as well look at the mirror. He found it a little difficult to maneuver the sudden long legs and he waddled clumsily at first. After his gait smoothened out a bit and he began to fall in stride, he nearly jumped in wild terror to land on the ceiling owing to the sharp yelps of surprise and shrieks of horror that thundered from the bathroom's confines.

Oh. They are having a mini-apocalyptic fit. Castiel thought plainly as he slammed a hand to calm his- no Sam's- heart hammering against his ribs. The boy's got the robust heart of an ox.

Castiel decided to leave the brothers to their newest discoveries as he sat back down on the bed. He might as well watch some TV. For some reason he felt more refreshed than he had ever been. He accredited it to having laid down horizontally in bed rather than his vertical watch at the chair.

Well, he mused, Dean will surely have a sore back. He hoped he wouldn't have to deal with a sulky Dean because of that. The angel just couldn't handle it when his ward got like that. He'd use the most ridiculous notions and weirdest phrases out of the celestial being's database of human references.

He found a channel with a TV evangelist on it and he put down the remote. At least there were a few mortals who still preached of his father.

From inside the bathroom a barrage of grievances and protests resonated off the tiled walls. Apparently the cemented surfaces weren't acoustic.

Sam (as Dean)- "I got beer breath! Yuck!"

Dean (as Castiel)- "My hair! It's gone! I got coppery wires instead!"

Sam (as Dean)- "Well my hair's gone too and all I got left is a trimmed grass lawn! Never liked your style and now I'm stuck with it!"

Dean (as Castiel)- "Hey my hair's awesome! Yours is the untamed jungle Sasquatch! And oh, newsflash, Sammy. You're short, ha ha."

Sam (as Dean)- "Oh really? Guess what Dean? YOU are still SHORTER, mwa ha ha."

Dean (as Castiel)- "Thank your lucky stars Sam, that you got the handsome face and sexy body from among the two of us!

Sam (as Dean)- "Well, look at you. Not that Jimmy is bad-looking but he reminds me of an awesome song, ya know?"

Dean (as Castiel)- "Oh yeah?"

Sam (as Dean)- "Yeah. It goes like this-"

And Sam, in Dean's body, took on a notorious grin as he began to sing in his brother's vocals.

"Curly hair, very fair
Eyes are blue, lovely too!
Heaven's pet-
Isn't that you?"

He even had the atrocity to pat Dean, in Castiel's vessel, on the crown. The older brother was livid.

Dean (as Castiel)- "You do realize you just declared war?"

Sam (as Dean)- "Oh please, you weren't ever scary and you aren't doing a very good job at being terrifying even now."

Dean (as Castiel)- "You don't do justice to my body. I'm worried you'll scare away all the hot chicks with your bitchy tantrums."

Sam (as Dean)- "I might. After all, I'm wearing the PRETTY brother… and honestly, this look kinda suits you better, Deanie Weanie."

Dean (as Castiel)- "I'm not pretty! You're girlie!"

Sam (as Dean)- "And you're a bow-legged pigeon!"

Dean (as Castiel)- "Chicks dig them!"

Sam (as Dean)- "Hah! Probably because it makes you look like a bumbling fool and easy to prey upon!"

Dean as Castiel looked fit to explode. "I am a hunter, I prey!"

"Yeah, a big time dumbass hunter who clocked me first thing in the morning!"

"How was I s'posed to know I was you?!"

"I don't know! At least it's your face that'll bruise… jerk!"

"Bitch!"

"Jerk!"

"Bitch!"

"Jerk!"

'Cas' rattled off a string of expletives and pulled a dozen funny faces at 'Dean' who looked mortified. "How's that, Bitch!"

"Gawd, dude… if I hadn't known it's you in Cas's body I'd have probably had a heart attack with the stunts you just pulled. I can't imagine Cas ever doing all that…"

"Not the time to go all softie-woftie Sammy. I gotta have my body back. It's stifling in Cas's clothes… wonder how he carries all this weight around…and, oh-" 'Dean' picked up a length of the trench-coat's belt that had reached the floor in an uneven length, "I must have tripped on this… son of a bitch…"

"Have you finished your explorations and discoveries?" a voice asked from the sleeping area of the motel room.

Both brothers looked at each other. Green meeting, oddly, blue. A simultaneous sigh of defeat.

"Yeah." 'Dean' mumbled.

"Be right out." 'Cas' replied.

They walked out of the bathroom and saw 'Sam' staring in an uncharacteristically stoic manner at them.

"So…" the brothers, each displaced out of their bodies, said together.

"Gabriel has done this to us."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked. Dean couldn't help but roll his- Jimmy's- eyes while his brother seated his butt on the other bed.

"Geez, Sammy who else would want to do this?" Dean shuffled over to his side and sat down. Man, this stupid trench-coat hinders free movement, he observed, it's like being trussed up in a blanket.

Sam scowled at his brother before turning back to Castiel. It was weird to look at his own face for a solution to their predicament.

Before Castiel could answer, an evil cackle boomed through the motel room and all of them, except for Castiel in Sam's body, jumped violently.

A tiny rainbow-colored sparrow that was attired in a silken scarf and a fedora hat and eating popcorn out of a bucket scaled down to its size, darted and flew around the room before settling on the TV's antennae.

"What the hell?" Dean frowned and narrowed his vessel's blue eyes to get a better look.

"Hey Dean-o. Missed me?" the tiny thing chirped, "Howdy Sam. And you too, little brother! Like my handiwork?"

"Gabriel." Castiel nodded and stood up. "We were just talking about you."

A tiny shrill sound echoed across the recesses of the room. The colorful sparrow picked up a microscopic cell phone from his equally tiny belt and read the text.

"Oh darn. Gotta go my darlings, the Bermuda guys need my help." Gabriel informed them with no more casual concern than he was showing to the corn kernels in his miniature popcorn bucket.

"Gabriel, wait." Castiel, deciding it was upto him to talk some sense into his prankster brother, took the bold initiative.

"No can do baby bro, you take care of your roomies 'coz I have important things to attend to. Toodles!"

The vibrant sparrow shook its little tail at them and tipped its tiny hat towards them before disappearing in a mini clap of thunder. It left a tiny burnt spot on the top of the TV.

"When I get my hands on your flimsy feathers, I'm gonna pluck them all and then rip you apart and roast you alive…" Dean swore under his breath.

There was a burst of bright light just above the heads and a rolled up scroll floated down to Dean's open palm. He undid the ridiculously hot pink ribbon holding the scroll together and turned flaming red when he read what was written on it.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean threw the scroll on the floor and grabbed his keys from his jacket's pocket. In less than five seconds he was out and they could hear the rumble of the Impala in the next five that followed.

Sam picked up the creased letter and read the words on it. With his newly added height, Castiel loomed over the younger Winchester and read the same.

"Does my big brother harbor deep affection for your big brother?" the ever clueless angel asked and Sam groaned before palming his face.

My Dear Deano

You'll NEVER catch me.

You're most welcome to try and catch my ass though! I'll be waiting for you and your rusty wagon, if you can ever catch up to me!

Oooooh, and make the chase interesting!

Till we meet again, my anti-apocalyptic sweetheart!

Love,
Gabe the Babe.

XOXOXO

Dean better not catch any sparrows for interrogation.

Was it rare, medium or overdone? Answer in feedback please :)