*Night shifts were rough, especially in these times. The brick walls of tall buildings loomed over you as you walked home, after a particularly rough night. Rain hit the cracked pavement at a steady, heavy pace, causing a haze that limited one's vision to a small extent.

Nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary. It maybe felt a bit odd, though, as no one else was out, but that was likely because it was so late, around 3 in the morning.

As you passed an alley, however, something threw off the entire night. A flash of light, a loud grunt, and a metallic thud, all within a split second.

Against your better judgment, you turned back, peeking in to get a look. There, upon the ground, was an odd humanoid being. Mainly covered in gold and white armor, which could have looked better, although at the moment it was covered in dents and blood, the latter of which was quickly being washed away by the rain. Closer inspection revealed the being was out cold.

Gabriel, upon awakening again after narrowly escaping death, something that had never happened before, but was unfortunately a must in this scenario, glanced around the rather nice studio apartment he now sat in. He lay sprawled over a low couch, the rain outside pattering against the window, but not loud enough to drown out his panicking thoughts.

He patted himself down quickly, wincing as his hands went over his injured areas, but with a sigh of relief noticed nothing was missing. All his armor intact, all his weapons still there. For convenience and stealth, he had 'deactivated' his wings and halo, as they were bright and stuck out like a sore middle finger in the dark city.

Gabriel took a moment, studying his surroundings. He held a hand over his abdomen, slowly sitting up to get a better look. It was dimly lit, but had a nice view of the city outside. As pretty as the view was, this was still bad, the one thing he had wanted was to not get caught by humans, and here he was.

A sound from another room alerted him, and he whipped his head around.*