12 years ago, Bayside Central.

Marvin is sitting in a puddle of his parents' blood. He is scared, angry and generally hopeless.

He is sitting in the middle of a plaza, wondering why people around him aren't reacting to his dead parents lying in front of him, his brother next to him, and their killer, who is standing across from him, eating at the skin of his father. To Marvin, the people around him aren't concerned with his existence, they can't seem to see his problems or the cause of them.

"You're s-s-s-special..." The Fallen hisses. "I like it when my meals are special."

"Who are you?" Marvin asks, afraid to look up, staring at the blood and guts in front of him.

"You'll know...you'll find out s-s-soon enough." The Fallen says, and walks closer to him, as he finally raises his head, and screams out loud.

Present Day, The Kaine Family Manor.

A couple of days later.

Marvin snaps out of the daydream to see that his toast is burning. He curses under his breath and takes out the toast. He begins to prepare a meal for himself, before taking his food, a plate of toast and eggs, over into the family library, alongside a cup of coffee.

Marvin takes out a book from a certain catalog, titled 'The Wonders of the Supernatural'. He quickly picks out a bookmark and resumes his reading.

A couple of hours later, he leaves the library for a training area downstairs. There he spends a couple of hours repeating a few training routines, before he takes a shower and takes a short jog to a nearby grocery store. He is wearing a hoodie with the hood up, as well as a pair of black sweats, as well as some expensive sneaker brand.

Marvin quickly heads over to the fruits and vegetables aisle and bumps into a stranger on his way there. He quickly apologizes and continues on his way.

Marvin gets out of the grocery store and heads back home.

Morning comes the very next day, and Marvin has already taken care of his basic needs. He walks a mile or so to the train station at Rhine Valley. He buys a ticket at the ticketing area and heads down south to Bayside Central. He arrives at the train station there, gets off at his stop, and heads to the Town Library.

"Fancy meeting you here." Mikael says, at the door to the library. Next to him is Chica, and both are wearing sweatshirts and sweatpants.

"These coincidences have got to stop, Chen." Marvin says.

"Don't blame me, this was her idea." Mikael points to Chica, who introduces herself. "Hi, I'm Chica. You're Marvin, right?"

"Hello." Marvin awkwardly replies. "I saw you on the roof that one time..."

"What brings you to Central?" She asks.

"Don't you two live, like *two* trains away from here?" Marvin asks, confused. She hushes him.

"I asked you first." She says.

"I came here to do some research." Marvin explains. "I'm an investigator." He tells Chica.

"Oh, that's great, we came here for that too." She says.

"What are you talking about?" Marvin asks, looking tired and confused.

"Just follow us, already," Mikael says and opens the doors to the library that have yet to open for the day. He walks down the main hall of the library, passing the librarian, whom Mikael greets.

"Morning, Miss Blake." He says, and Chica follows suit. She simply smiles and waves back.

Mikael walks behind the Head Librarian's desk at the farthest Northern end of the library, which there appears to be a solid wall. Mikael and Chica walk through it, where Marvin stops and looks even more confused.

Mikael's head pops back outside the wall, with only half his body peering through the wall. "Just get in here." He says.

"How? How do I walk through a solid wall?" Marvin asks.

"it's the same thing as a veil. You can walk through those, so you should be able to walk through this." Mikael says and takes him by the arm, pulling him inside.

Once inside, Marvin looks up to see a wide underground library and sees some people in Winnower uniforms walking around the place.

"Welcome to the Winnowers' Hold." Mikael says.

The walls are raised very high, meaning it is deep underground. Banners and posters are hanging on each wall, with shelves containing different books, records and memoirs. Marvin walks around the Hold, trying to hold in a sort of juvenile excitement that he feels, staying close to Mikael and Chica.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

"So, what exactly are you looking for here?" Marvin asks.

"A couple of things...Let's stop by the armory first." Mikael says, and they walk through the library, with the Winnowers present all passing menacing glances at Mikael.

"Are you sure you're meant to be here, Mikael?" Marvin asks, feeling somewhat nervous.

"What? don't be silly, of course I'm still allowed here. it's just that no one else likes that fact." Mikael says, while Chica waves and greets at the passing Winnowers.

Arriving at the armory, Mikael and Chica greet the old man sitting at the front of the gallery.

"Mikael...It's been quite some time." The old man says, as Mikael reaches out to shake his hand. The old man has very bright white hair and very pale blue eyes. His wrinkles are few but exaggerated to show how aged he is. His beards are trimmed, and he has a deep fair skin tone.

"What can I say, Old man?" Mikael starts. "I can't say anyone around these parts wants me."

"Nonsense." he says and turns to Chica. "Why don't you talk to your partner into coming here more often?" He asks. "I still miss our days sparring." Chica shrugs and takes a short walk around the armory.

Mikael turns to Marvin, which directs the old man's attention to him as well. "A regular human? I wonder how you were able to get in here."

"I'm kind of a half-breed." Marvin says, shrugging.

"Oh, I see." The old man says and turns to Mikael again. "I assume you want me to teach him our ways and arm him with a Soul Tool?"

"Nothing gets past you, Pops." Mikael says.

The old man sighs. "I'm doing this for you." He turns to Marvin. "Come along, boy. Let's get ourselves a quick start."

Marvin turns to Mikael. "Wait, what are the other things?" He asks.

"Don't need to worry about that now." Mikael says, waving him away.

"Oh, and Mikael?" The old man calls out. Mikael turns to him.

"We've got company. There's a veil on the outside library right now." The man says. "For whatever reason, one of you was followed, and now we have a bunch of Enclave assassins about to burst through the front door, and Miss Blake will not be able to take on that many."

Mikael looks at Chica, who is walking back to him. Marvin stares at the two of them in confusion.

"What would you have me do?" The old man asks Mikael.

"Pick out a tool for my friend here," Mikael says. "When you do, you can join us above ground for some good, old-fashioned roughhousing."

The man smiles. "That's what I like to hear."

Mikael and Chica both walk out of the armory and move quickly to the entrance of the underground hold.

Marvin watches them leave. He turns to the old man. "What about the guys down here?"

"They can take care of themselves...I cannot say the same for you." The old man says.

"I can fight. I'm a capable fighter, even."

"I didn't argue that." The old man says, and a blue aura surrounds him, before he materializes a sword out of thin air. "But, you cannot fight *our* kind of battles."

The man walks to one of the displays and turns to Marvin. "What do you feel comfortable with?"

"I don't know, guns maybe. I prefer to fight with a melee weapon though, a staff could work."

At the same time, above ground.

A small group of The Enclave's assassins burst through the library doors and storm the interior, all wearing masks. They are stopped in their tracks when a couple of them are shot down by the Librarian standing atop a spiral staircase on the upper floor. Some of them shoot at her, but a mass of water seemingly materializes out of nowhere and prevents the bullets from reaching her.

Chica walks into the main hall, her face covered in a custom mask, holding up her finger, before releasing it, as the water shield vanishes and the bullets drop to the ground.

"Thank you, Chica darling." The librarian says.

"Don't mention it, Miss Blake," she says, materializing a shortsword out of the blue aura surrounding her. The assassins rush at her, and she manages to fend off the lot of them, before Mikael drops onto the ground in front of them, cratering the ground beneath him, before swiftly cutting through Chica's attackers.

The ones behind them notice Mikael. "Hey, what's he doing here?" One of them asks.

"I didn't sign up for him to be here. I'm out." Another says and turns his back to leave when his head is sliced clean off by an unseen figure.

The other assassins look around for the assailant and find them sitting on a table, holding the head of the recently fallen assassin.

This figure is cloaked. Head to toe, covered in a black, full-body cloak, with only the arms out, holding the man's head. There are weird tattoos on their hand.

"This is a raid. We aren't leaving until we get what we came for." The cloaked figure says.