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Archangels possess the powers and abilities that are inherent in other angels, which are detailed in "[[Angel Lore]]," but have additional strengths commensurate with their rank. Their telekinesis, for example, appears to have a wider range than that of the average angel. [[Gabriel]] snaps his fingers and flames appear on two candles.<ref name="five19" /> [[Raphael]] can manipulate electricity.<ref name="five03">[[5.03 Free to Be You and Me]]</ref> Lucifer can alter temperature.<ref name="five22" />
Perhaps the greatest measure of the archangels' strength is their ability to overpower other supernatural beings. [[Lucifer]], unarmed, kills a number of [[:Category:Deities|pagan gods]] with ease using his bare hands and telekinesis (or molecular combustion).<ref name="five19" /> Lesser angel have also been defeated by archangels. Gabriel banishes [[Castiel]] to another location with a snap of his fingers.<ref name="five08">[[5.08 Changing Channels]]</ref> [[Michael]] does the same to a young [[Uriel]].<ref name="five13">[[5.13 The Song Remains the Same]]</ref> They may resort to more violent methods to make a point. Raphael beats Castiel, and leaves him bloody in his favorite corner of Heaven when Castiel refuses to give him his allegiance.<ref name="six20">[[6.20 The Man Who Would Be King]]</ref> They fight again at [[Balthazar]]'s house, and once again Raphael easily overpowers Castiel, throwing him down Balthazar's staircase.<ref name="six03">[[6.03 The Third Man]]</ref> When they choose, archangels can kill without fighting. Michael incinerates [[Anna Milton]] with a simple touch when she threatens his plans.<ref name="five13" /> On separate occasions, Lucifer and Raphael both cause Castiel to explode.<ref name="five03" /><ref name="five22" /> Following his return, Lucifer commonly uses this power to kill angels and demons.<ref name="eleven11" /><ref name="eleven18" /><ref name="twelve15">[[12.15 Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell]]</ref><ref name="thirteen02">[[13.02 The Rising Son]]</ref> Archangels can also block the powers of their lower ranking brothers; Raphael prevents Castiel from using his powers on [[Crowley]].<ref name="six22">[[6.22 The Man Who Knew Too Much]]</ref> [[File:PowerRipple.png|thumb|right|350px|[[Michael (Apocalypse World)|Michael]] unleashes a ripple of celestial energy during his fight with [[Lucifer]].]] When attacked by a lesser angel, Lucifer casually causes him to explode without even paying attention to the angel.<ref name="eleven11">[[11.11 Into the Mystic]]</ref> During a fight in close quarters with Sam, Dean, and Castiel, Lucifer is able to casually beat all three even though Castiel is armed and he is not. Notably, none of the blows any of the three land cause any harm to the archangel.<ref name="eleven10">[[11.10 The Devil in the Details]]</ref> During a confrontation with [[Asmodeus]], the last of the [[Princes of Hell]], Gabriel effortlessly deflects an energy blast from the powerful demon and incinerates him with just a gesture despite Asmodeus' high level of power, boosted by regular injections of Gabriel's [[grace]] and the fact that Gabriel himself is in a weakened state.<ref name="thirteen18">[[13.18 Bring 'em Back Alive]]</ref> However, Gabriel later admits that it took much of the power he had at the time to kill Asmodeus, leaving him more vulnerable to attacks.<ref name="thirteen20" /> Michael effortlessly obliterated [[Lilith]] despite her incredible power as the first demon which was accomplished without even laying a hand on the demon and later overpowered and strangled Castiel even while restrained by the [[Angel Cuffsangel cuffs]] which bound much of Michael's power.<ref name="fifteen08" />
Archangels can resurrect humans at will, even when out of contact with Heaven. Michael heals Sam completely after he was impaled with a pipe, and bled out.<ref name="five13" /> Gabriel, while posing as the Trickster, kills and resurrects Dean dozens of times in a time loop.<ref name="three11">[[3.11 Mystery Spot]]</ref> Lucifer tells Sam that if he killed himself he would resurrect him,<ref name="five03" /> and Castiel states that if Anna killed Sam that Lucifer would only resurrect him.<ref name="five13" /> After Sam was killed when a [[vampire]] ripped out his throat, Lucifer was able to resurrect him with apparent ease, having recharged his [[grace]] by feeding on the grace of several other angels.<ref name="thirteen21">[[13.21 Beat the Devil]]</ref> At the request of [[Jack]], Lucifer later resurrects [[Maggie (Apocalypse World)|Maggie]] who had, as it turned out, been killed by Lucifer.<ref name="thirteen23" />
The archangels have an ability to manipulate reality, which Gabriel in particular embraces. Gabriel can construct alternate realities and time loops, and control who is aware of the situation. He can create things out of thin air, including murderous accomplices and duplicates of himself.<ref name="two15">[[2.15 Tall Tales]]</ref> Gabriel can change the appearance of objects, as he proved when he made a can of diet Orange Slice look like his archangel blade,<ref name="five19" /> and can change his own form.<ref name="three11" /> Lucifer claims to have taught Gabriel all his "tricks," and uses some of them himself. Lucifer appears to his vessel Nick as Sarah, Nick's murdered wife, and makes him see blood in his bed and his dead child's crib. Lucifer appears in Sam's dreams as [[Jess]] as well. He later does the same thing to [[Vince Vincente]] by making him see blood in a sink faucet, levitating objects, and impersonating his dead wife.<ref name="three11" /><ref name="five03" /><ref name="five10" /><ref name="twelve02">[[12.02 Mamma Mia]]</ref> While possessing Adam Milligan, Michael is able to manifest to his vessel in the waking world as an exact duplicate of Adam so they can communicate as easily as if they were two regular people having a conversation. This manifestation is more of a hallucination, however and is not a physical duplicate with only Adam being able to perceive Michael. Michael's manifestation is extremely realistic to the point that he can, to Adam's eyes at least, pick up a French fry and pace around a room during an argument.<ref name="fifteen08" />
Every archangel apparently possesses knowledge of [[Lucifer's Cage]] and how it works, above and beyond the existence of [[the 66 Seals]]. Michael understands the prison very well because he cast Lucifer into it. Lucifer, having been imprisoned in the Cage for thousands of years, knew how to escape through the 66 Seals and also by taking advantage of a loophole found in the summoning spell from the ''[[Book of the Damned]]'' to escape.<ref name="eleven10" /> Gabriel knew that the Cage can could be reopened with the Horsemen's Rings,<ref name="five19" /> and Lucifer, despite Gabriel's word, knows this too.<ref name="five22" /> Raphael may have known of another method to open the Cage, as he intended to reopen it to restart the Apocalypse.<ref name="six03" /> In addition, Michael at least possesses knowledge of the spell that locked the Darkness away and by extension, can be used to trap a weakened God.<ref name="fifteen08" />
Despite being extremely powerful beings, the archangels as individuals possess powers greater or weaker than each other depending on their ages. For example, Gabriel was no match for either a fully-powered Lucifer while he himself was at full power<ref name="five19" /> or the alternate Michael.<ref name="thirteen22" /> At full power, Lucifer was also no match for the alternate Michael despite being far more powerful than Gabriel.<ref name="thirteen02" /> While [[Raphael]] required a spell uncovered by Crowley and Castiel to open a portal to [[Purgatory]],<ref name="six22" /> the far more powerful Michael could open a portal to the realm with just a snap of his fingers.<ref name="fifteen08" />
While archangels are immune to the majority of man-made weaponry, there are various objects that are capable of fending off an archangel in some fashion. A [[Hyperbolic Pulse Generator]], created by the [[British Men of Letters]] as a more reliable method of [[exorcism]] against demons, can expel an archangel from their vessel.<ref name="twelve08">[[12.08 LOTUS]]</ref> [[The Colt]] was shown to damage, but not kill, Lucifer, who revealed to Dean Winchester that he is one of "only five things in all of creation that that gun can't kill."<ref name="five10" /> It is not known if Lucifer meant solely himself, or that the archangels as a whole are immune. [[Holy oil]] is a very special and very rare type of oil found predominantly in Jerusalem. A ring of holy fire produced by igniting holy oil can restrain an archangel, but unlike a typical angel it will not kill them upon contact. It can, however, temporarily incapacitate them and force them to retreat to heal themselves.<ref name="five08" /><ref name="five22">[[5.22 Swan Song]]</ref> However, when combined with warding, a ring of holy fire could only hold Lucifer for a few minutes.<ref name="eleven18" /> In another case, a line of holy fire held the alternate Michael back long enough for his targets to make an escape. He appeared unable to cross it and seemed to be looking at an impending explosion to free him.<ref name="thirteen23" /> In another instance, holy fire distracted this Michael long enough to be bound with [[angel cuffs]] that had been upgraded to hold archangels.<ref name="fourteen10" /> With the Michael of the Winchester's world, a ring of holy fire could hold him captive for at least a short time, much like it could with [[Raphael]]<ref name="five03" /> and Gabriel.<ref name="five08" /> However, this Michael proved to be more immune to the effects of the angel cuffs than his counterpart, retaining some of his abilities with them on while the alternate Michael appeared to be completely powerless.<ref name="fourteen10" /><ref name="fifteen08" />
On a few occasions, a strong-willed vessel has been shown capable of overpowering a possessing archangel and taking back control for a time<ref name="five22" /><ref name="eleven14" /> or even trapping the archangel within their mind for months. However, such a feat requires an unimaginable amount of concentration and sheer force of will, making a vessel's ability to do so incredibly rare.<ref name="fourteen10" /><ref name="fourteen14" /> [[Grace Extractor|Extracting the grace]] of an archangel can render them human and vulnerable to any method of death.<ref name="thirteen17">[[13.17 The Thing]]</ref> Even if an archangel's grace is not fully extracted, they become weaker and more vulnerable with lesser grace. Lucifer was able to feel cold when his grace was low, even after recharging it a bit by stealing the grace of other angels graces, however regular angel grace proved insufficient as once he would use his powers, the grace would burn away and he would be left back where he started.<ref name="thirteen13" /> In this weakened state, he was more vulnerable to [[angel blades]], suffering harm after being stabbed with one by Castiel,<ref name="thirteen12" /> but not being killed. Asmodeus believed that Lucifer could be killed with an angel blade to the heart in this state, though that is unconfirmed. [[Arthur Ketch]] felt that a [[demon bomb]] could "put a dent" in Lucifer in this weakened state despite the weapon being designed for demons and , though Lucifer fled rather than let the bomb hit him.<ref name="thirteen13" /> Gabriel was harmed by the claws of the deity [[Fenrir Odensbane]] after having used much of his regained grace to kill [[Asmodeus]] and escape the bunker.<ref name="thirteen20" /> However, archangel grace recharges over time. According to lore, it can take anywhere from a month to a century to recharge.<ref name="fourteen02" />
Another major vulnerability for an archangel is the [[Ma'lak Box]], a mystical heavily [[Warding|warded]] coffin capable of imprisoning even the most powerful archangel. Though the secrets to how to build it were lost, [[Billie]] was able to give Dean the instructions after her books said that the only fate where Michael didn't escape Dean's mind and destroy the world had Dean imprisoning himself and Michael in the Ma'lak Box.<ref name="fourteen10" /><ref name="fourteen11" /> Notably, after he did escape, Michael chose to leave Dean's body and find another vessel, showing awareness of this plan when confronting the Winchesters, Jack and Castiel.<ref name="fourteen14" />
==The Archangels==
