{June, 1909}
The hunt was going poorly.
Gabriel crouched behind a wooden box, his Mauser held tight against his chest with one finger itching to pull the trigger. Admitted, the shot of salt-water coated iron would be useless at the moment, but he wanted to.
He glanced to the lanky blond teen who held a bag of salt and a similarly iron-salt coated sidearm, Sol making a few quick hand gestures to move forward. Gabriel boosted to his feet, remaining low and balanced as he dashed forward, followed by Sol, the pair hiding behind a second crate. "Where's Alpha?" Gabriel hissed at him.
"Not sure." Sol answered, stretching his neck to peer around the corner, snapping back to look at Gabriel swiftly. "At least three of them out there. You gonna be good with that?"
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "I've been hunting longer than you've been alive." He whispered. "You kids need to get on my level."
"I'm sure, we'll think about that in about a second, when Alpha's done with the ground level demons." Sol agreed placatingly, right before a single shot rang out.
The first demon, a guard, went down like a sack of potatoes.
The other two jumped as he fell, searching the overhead beams for the black shape that would betray the sniper's location, which was when Gabriel and Sol moved.
A few shots and a quick finisher with his angel blade, Gabriel was waving to the ceiling of the warehouse, it's tin roof preventing him from seeing where Alpha was hiding at all. "Next shot's yours, kiddo. Go get the big one down, we'll get the others." He whisper-shouted, the words greeted with a soft slipping noise.
Sol and Gabriel leaned on the wall beside the door, waiting for the shots that would declare their time to come in.
"Well, got any good jokes?" Gabriel questioned quietly as they rested and listened.
"Really, Gabriel?" Sol turned to face him, an eyebrow raised. "Can you be serious for more than two minutes in a firefight?"
"Nope." Gabriel answered, a little too confidently. "Besides, I thought kids your age liked jokes."
"Not jokes from before I was born." Sol huffed, pulling out one of their potion smoke-bombs, custom made by De'van.
"I know, that's why I asked you about any jokes you knew!"
Sol chuckled lightly at that.
Then the shot came.
Sol lobbed the smoke-bomb over the wall, the glass shattering and slow, soft tendrils of thick grey smog leaking over the walls as chaos reigned inside the boxed off area, Alpha having obviously dropped into the fray, slaughtering the demons wholesale and ignoring the human hostages, avoiding the one they had been sent to capture.
Gabriel hummed a tune he had heard De'van singing the other day, pacing slowly while Sol fiddled with the Enochian handcuffs he brought along.
"Boys!" Alpha's surprisingly deep, low, half-growl of a voice called after the noises subsided. "All clear!"
Sol placed one hand on the handle, nodding to Gabriel, who cocked his rifle anyway, before pushing inside.
In the centre of the room, a tall, lithe, muscular woman stood, her short-cut black hair and combat gear making her look more like a guy. She was swiftly tying down a trapped demon, the one they had been sent to retrieve for Wayne, while Sol checked the rest of the room and started to untie the survivors.
"Hey sugar." Gabriel grinned playfully at Alpha, who simply gave him a fond scoff.
"You going to flirt or help me? Sol, pass Gabriel those cuffs!" She ordered in her sharp accent that sounded vaguely Irish, but also weirdly Canadian. It was the strangest thing to listen to, but... Gabriel was definitely going to Hell for wanting the half-child of a werefox, but damn if he wouldn't tap that.
The Enochian cuffs in question landed about an inch from his foot, prompting Gabriel to slide the tip of his boot under the chain and kick the cuffs upward, catching them as they came within grabbing range.
After that, Gabriel locked the demon into the cuffs, stepping away to allow Alpha to gag and blindfold him, covering his ears with thick wads of fabric that prevented him from hearing.
"Well, that hunt went great!" Gabriel grinned as Sol finished cutting the hostages free, helping them up and running to get his truck so they could be taken to the nearest town.
"We do indeed have the target." Alpha agreed, patting the demon's head, green-blue eyes flashing to slits. She intrigued Gabriel on a level few ever had.
"Oh, mission mission blah blah. Let's just put him in the trunk. Go for dinner." Gabriel suggested.
"Gabe, we have Sol with us." Alpha informed unnecessarily, dragging the demon to his feet by his neck.
"Yeah, but we could get food."
"Later, you kinopsha." She laughed.
"Wait, was that Enochian? Damn, that sounded great!" Gabriel laughed as the group and their freed victims walked out of the warehouse, into the safety of the sun.
{October, 2013}
"You are the worst conversationalist I have ever met. I thought you were the Trickster, joking and all that."
Gabriel facepalmed lightly, letting his hand slide down his face with a drawn-out groan. The cuff around his wrist clinked loudly against itself as he did so, making a jarring clang as he dropped his hand toward the floor. "Do you ever shut up?" He growled, annoyed, at Crowley.
"Not at all." In the darkness, Gabriel could practically hear the demon's smirk. "It's a little worse right now, as I've had nobody to talk to for the last few days."
"Then go back to pretending that." Gabriel snapped, shuffling to lean in the corner better, wincing as his wing twinged with the rough movement.
"We're trapped in the same cell, angel, and we should talk as prisoners do. You know, don't make friends with the officers, but with the victims?" Crowley questioned.
"First off," Gabriel held up his pointer finger. "You ever call me 'angel' again, I'll smite you, wards or not. And before you ask," Gabriel interrupted when Crowley opened his mouth. "I know every nook and cranny, every ward, every sigil and it's counter in this place. Second, if we're both prisoners, how come you've got a collar and I've got a cute bracelet?" Gabriel held his hand up, rotating his arm to make the shackle bounce on his wrist with small clicking noises.
