Evening, almost two days later.

Mikael and Marvin walk up to an abandoned building. "Sense that?" Marvin asks.

"Yeah. What's even more surprising is that you can do it." Mikael replies.

"Unfortunately. let's go, then." Marvin says.

"Woah," Mikael says, blocking him with a hand. "I know right now you should be used to playing misfit, but we can't just waltz in here."

"Why not? What's the problem?"

"I don't know if my sister told you or you're playing dumb, but I can't just go around doing Winnower stuff while I'm still not a Winnower."

"Okay, so what does that mean?"

Mikael makes a few hand signs before the sky around the building changes into black, the same move used against him just a few days ago.

"So what does this do?" Marvin asks.

"Preserves my life a bit longer." Mikael jokes, and walks forward into the building, with Marvin following behind.

38 hours earlier; a few minutes after Marvin's arrival post-fight.

A bar in downtown Bayside Central.

Ramiel is sitting next to her younger brother, facing Marvin, who is sitting directly against the two, at the far end of the bar.

"Do you believe me now, Mikey?" she asks him, nervously smiling.

"I don't know..."Mikael sighs deeply. "That's a lot of coincidences to happen at once."

"Funny, I think so too," Marvin says. "Just come clean, Ramiel."

she sighs. "Fine. I tracked down an Enclave member a few days ago and I set up the meeting with the purpose of being overheard. Once overheard, it'd draw out whoever is responsible for the recent string of Winnower deaths."

"Wow," Mikael says. "I don't know if I should be offended or impressed."

"I feel a little of both," Marvin says.

"Come on, you two..." She teases. "I was just trying to get my job done...which is what we all want to do at the end of the day, right?"

Mikael sighs deeply.

"So what does this partnership entail?" Mikael asks.

"Well, I'm glad you asked. Marvin has a backlog of Fallen and Fallen-related incidents, some unresolved for years, some alien to even me." She says.

"Which reminds me...what exactly are you?" Mikael asks. "You can't use Soul Energy, but you can interact and see the Preternatural? That's unheard of."

Marvin stares at him. "Let's just say, I'm just a human who can see ghosts."

"You can help each other." She says. "Marvin has a list of cases you can help him resolve, and you get the kind of action that keeps you out of the Society's reach."

Back at the building.

The two young men walk down the empty hallways. "Why do you do this anyway? Looking into the Preternatural cases, I mean." Mikael asks.

"Expecting some tragic backstory?" Marvin says to him.

"Hey, man...no offense, but this job is not open to just anyone. People get hurt, and a lot of them die if they aren't strong enough to overcome."

"I'm fully aware of that. You'll see soon enough." Marvin says as they both walk into a large and dark hall.

Suddenly a heavy growling is heard at the other end.

"Did you hear that?" Marvin asks Mikael. He can barely see anything in the darkness and so turns to Mikael, whose right eye is glowing in the dark.

"What the?" Marvin is surprised, but Mikael pushes him away just in time to avoid a fatal blow from the beast growling in the dark.

"What are you doing?!" Mikael yells at Marvin. "Your life is at stake here! You can't just stand around idly while there's a monster in the same room with you."

"I got it, don't yell at me," Marvin says and reaches into his pocket. He takes out a cigar and a lighter and lights the cigar before throwing it on the floor, as they both watch a pillar of flames rise from the burnt-up cigar.

The beast is revealed to be a bipedal humanoid creature, about six feet tall, with Lovecraftian features on its face and body. However, Mikael doesn't focus on the Fallen in front of him, but on the trick Marvin just pulled.

"That's Vincent Mallory's trick! How'd you do that?"

"Your sister gave it to me, said it'd come in handy...What do we do to that thing?" Marvin replies, bringing him back on track.

The Fallen in front of them is on the other side of the flame pillar, waiting for the light from the fire to go out.

"Well..." Mikael starts "This is the weakest type of Fallen...a Shadow. It likely isn't here on its own."

"So what does that mean?" Marvin says, as the fire diminishes in size and the light starts to fade. There are now more growls in the background.

"Well, what it means, is once that light goes out, we'll be in for a long night," Mikael says and lifts the sleeves of his hoodie. "You came here with weapons, right?"

Marvin takes out a pistol. "Of course."

"Well, it's best that you know that those things don't work on Fallen," Mikael says and takes out a small ring from his pocket, putting it on his ring finger.

"Come out, Crow...Give me Wolfe and Styx," he says, and a blueish aura projects out of the ring and into his arms, manifesting as pistols. Mikael turns to Marvin and grins widely. "These work on Fallen."

The light goes significantly dim enough for the Fallen to resume their attack, to which Mikael jumps into action, shooting directly at the first one's head, killing it instantly, before quickly turning to the other ones coming out of the darkness, hitting with efficient shots, killing most of them with one or two shots.

The onslaught is stopped temporarily. Mikael turns to him. "I can't keep doing all the work. This is a partnership." He smiles, knowing that it is getting on Marvin's nerves.

Mikael throws one of the pistols to him, which he catches. "Let's see how good you are with Soul Tools," he says. "That's Styx. A form of Crow, a part of my soul. You're up, next round."

Mikael turns around walking further down the empty and dark hall. He zips his shirt up and makes a hand sign. "Give me, Masamune," he whispers, and a spectral katana, one resembling the blueish aura of the guns, appears in his hand. Marvin is following closely behind, clutching Styx tightly.

A new surge of aura reverberates through Mikael and Marvin. "That's not good," Mikael says. "A Marauder as well?"

"There's another Fallen class here too?" Marvin asks.

"Yes...now I see why this building is abandoned." Mikael says as the growling noises of the Shadows begin to sound out.

"Brace yourself, detective," Mikael says.

The dim moonlight shines through the windows as the Shadows jump out in full force against the two boys. With a few rapid-fire shots, Marvin hits every one of the Shadows he targets, however not as efficiently or accurately as Mikael. At the same time, Mikael is cleaving through the Shadows and shooting at those yet to get to him.

"Don't try to be accurate," Mikael says to Marvin. "Your body isn't conditioned to do so, the recoil will hurt your aim."

Marvin, remaining rigid, double clutches Styx and moves forward, this time with Mikael following behind.

"How often do you fight Fallen?" Mikael asks Marvin.

"There's a first for everything," Marvin says, catching Mikael off-guard and causing him to stop, while he continues moving.

The two leave the hall and emerge at a flight of stairs. "What do you mean there's a first for everything?" Mikael complains. "You said you could fight!"

"Yes. In theory. I haven't done so in practice. Not to this extent, anyway," Marvin iterates. "That aura seems to be coming from the roof." He says, looking up the stairs.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Yes, genius. The aura came from above us, we are already on the second floor, and the only way is up." Mikael replies sarcastically.

Marvin rolls his eyes and begins his climb up the stairs, once more with Mikael following behind.

They arrive at the roof, with Mikael still pestering Marvin who has come to a halt.

"I hope you know you can't fight a Marauder like that-" Mikael says, before looking forward. "Well, this is just perfect."

The Marauder has a copy of itself, standing side by side. It has the features of the Shadows except for a more defined head shape resembling a helmet.

"Two of you? That's exceptional!" Mikael says. "Fighting shadows wasn't going to be fun anyway."

"Why are you egging them on?" Marvin asks.

Mikael takes Styx back from him. "I suggest you try not moving."

The Marauders appear offended and riled up.

"Yeah!" Mikael says. "Let's rumble, dip wads." He says, pointing both Wolf and Styx at the original and the clone.

The two lunge at him, but with a single motion, he blows off their heads with Wolfe and Styx. They are stopped in their tracks, but quickly, their heads amorphously regenerate.

"Oh, shit, I forgot they could do that! Move!" Mikael says.

"I thought you said not to?!" Marvin questions, still panicking.

"Not the time, bro!" Mikael says, swinging the door to the roof wide open and ushering Marvin down the stairs. In a panic, Marvin rushes down, believing Mikael is covering his bases. By the time he arrives at the first floor, he checks to see how Mikael is doing only to discover he's not there.

Mikael shuts down the roof door behind him and takes off his hoodie. His pistols dissolve in his hands and he takes out a necklace he'd been wearing the entire time.

"Legion, give me Mahogany." He says, and his right arm is covered by a spectral gauntlet.

The beasts recover and jump at him. Mikael strikes the first attacker right in the recently-regenerated face, before jumping into a roundhouse side-footed kick to the next one. Before it can fly away, Mikael makes a hand gesture and pulls it back to him, seemingly with some sort of telekinetic force. He lands a powerful palm strike on the chest of the Marauder that seems to crack open its chest. The first one returns with a tail swipe, followed by two right and left arm strikes, all of which he dodges, somewhat seamlessly, before retaliating with a mean backhand to its face, to which it slides away several meters. The other one returns, but Mikael delivers another punch-kick combo that sends it reeling back.

Mikael continues to enjoy his fight against the two beasts, but he knows it has to end. Growling with resentment, the marauders prepare to lunge at him once again. Mikael laughs.

"I think it's time we wrapped this up, don't you think?" He says, as the gauntlet fades away and his guns re-materialize.

"Crow, Maximum output - Expunge." He says as two large balls of lightning form right in front of the guns. He pulls the trigger and the beasts, already lunging at him, are caught in the blast.

There is a loud boom on the roof, and Marvin rushes up to check if Mikael is okay.

Mikael sighs. "If only that was more challenging-" he is cut off in his monologue by some sharp pain in his chest. The pain is heavy and seems unbearable as he drops to his knees, coughing up blood.

"Fuck! Not now!" he curses. His left arm quickly changes to a pale white color, and the tips of his fingers turn blood-red. The cornea of his amber eye starts to produce blood and sharp spines begin protruding from his back.

Marvin arrives on the roof. "what happened? Are you good?" he says, before seeing Mikael's horrendous state and the fallen nowhere to be found.

"What the hell happened here?" he says, rushing to him. "What's going on with you?" he tries touching his body, but the amount of heat on his skin is enough to nearly burn his hand off.

"What the?" Marvin is confused, and all the while Mikael yelling and grunting in pain.

"Call...Chica." Mikael says, still grunting.

"Chica? Who is Chica? How do I get to her?" Marvin's confusion persists.

"Her card... is in my hoodie," Mikael says and collapses to the ground, more spines erupting from his back.

Marvin acts quickly, taking the contact card from his hoodie and calling her. She answers immediately.

"Mikael? What's the matter?" Chica asks.

"Um...This isn't Mikael. Mikael's in trouble right now."

"Who is this? Where is Mikael?"

"He's currently in the middle of a painful transformation...doesn't seem like he triggered-"

The call ends.

"Fuck." He says. "How on earth will I explain this to Ramiel?"

The veil is shattered from the outside with two people jumping in and onto the roof. Both are dressed in the same red uniform as Rami was two days prior, and one of them is Chica. The other one appears more similar in resemblance to Ramiel.

"That was quick," Marvin says.

Mikael looks up, his mouth bubbling with blood. "Chica...help." He says to Chica. She rushes over to him and hits him with an inhaler-like syringe.

"It'll be okay now." She says, hugging him, as the spines begin to retract and his arm gradually returns to its regular complexion.

The other one who arrived with her, a man, walks over to Mikael, while still looking up, then at Marvin, then Mikael again. His posture is immaculate, and he gives off an air of superiority.

"The fuck are you doing here?" Mikael says, turning to look up at him.

"Language, brother. besides, that's no way to talk to someone who helped save your life." He says.

"You? Save my life?" Mikael says.

"You're right, I have better things to do. But, I did help your girlfriend here to get to you as fast as she could," He replies.

"Cool it, Gabriel," Chica says.

He turns his attention to Marvin. "What's a regular human being doing inside a Veil?"

"I'm a paranormal investigator," Marvin replies.

"That's not what I asked," Gabriel states, taking a single step and appearing before Marvin. "I asked how you got inside a Veil. Also..." Gabriel turns to Mikael.

"Why exactly are you here? I shouldn't be the one to tell you that you aren't allowed to do these things anymore."

Chica turns to Mikael, who looks away.

"I'm not a heartless bastard, dear brother, but this...this is beginning to get out of hand," Gabriel says and takes out his mask to wear.

"Put that down, Gabe." A feminine voice goes.

All eyes on the roof turn to the voice above them. It's Ramiel, hovering above in street clothes.

"I could've guessed this was your doing," Gabriel says.

"Aww...what gave that away?" She smiles and says, sarcastically.

"Sometimes I wonder what makes the Society tolerate you..." Gabriel starts but is cut off. "Is it because you can't, my dearest big brother?" She quickly retorts.

Gabriel's stoic and composed exterior is beginning to crack.

"Kent...we're leaving," Gabriel says and opens the roof door, storming down the stairs.

"Of course you are..." Ramiel says.

Chica gets up and gives Mikael a forehead kiss before running after Gabriel.

Ramiel lands next to Mikael, sitting down next to him.

"I'd already sent her your hypo when Gabriel caught up with her," she says in a whisper, smiling.

"Your brother's kind of a dick," Marvin says.

"Which one?" She asks.

"Both of them," he says and stares down Mikael.

"Runs in the family." She laughs. "How was your first day of partnering?"

"It was something, I guess," Marvin replies.

"And you, Mikey?" she asks.

"I think you mean the last day of partnering. There's no way Gabriel is letting this slide."

"Giving up so soon? Have a little faith, Mikey baby." She says and grins maniacally. "It's me we're talking about here."