• A young boy sprints across the ground at night, his footsteps making a pat-pat pat-pat sound in the puddles of water. He takes a deep breath as he rounds the corner to see his pursuers, waiting in the rain. He quickly leaps onto a pole, shimmying his way to the top and launches to a railing across the street to safety. He relaxes his body for the next move, two maybe three guards on the rooftops - he would have to move swiftly and silently if he wanted to live. The boy stays low to the ground as he stalks the lone guard on the southside edge of the building.
    He delivers a quick leg-sweep, followed by a guillotine kick to knock the guard out, all without a single sound. The last two guards were grouped at the southern edge, where the escape path was. He counted down - 3... 2... 1... 0 - and leapt from the shadows, tackling the first guard and swiftly knocking out the stunned, second guard. He took the path down to the streets where it was heavily populated, making it easy to get lost from the guard. After a few hours of walking around, he found his home in the Aetopia Slums.
    The Aetopia Slums, otherwise called "the Slums" or "Zero-AE", it is where all the people in Aethyria who have no talent for Aether reside. Aether is a mark of nobility and pride, meaning those who have strong Aether in their soul live in the Gardens, the grandest and richest sector of Aethyria. This boy, Izzy Virtue, has no Aether but has the dream of one day living in the Gardens, and plans on bringing everyone in the Slums with him. Until that day, he would live a hard life in the Slums, robbing the somewhat-rich in the Markets and earning what little money he can doing odd-jobs.
    Izzy took off his clothes, laying them over an Aether-Heater to dry, and dropped onto his bed in exhaustion. He was so close to getting that gem, he could nearly taste the Hul from pawning that beauty off. He could only be happy for escaping the guards and pray for a better harvest the next day. He looked out the window above his bed to see the Gardens, sighing as he saw the majestic Jupiter Keep, where the Lord of Aethyria resided with his wife and daughter, and the prestigious Aethyria Academy, which is a school for the children of nobles who have a knack for Aether. After a while of looking at these monuments, the young Izzy fell asleep and dreamed of life in the Gardens.
    The next morning, Izzy put on his now dry clothes and took his secret path up to the Aethyria Markets, where he will decide on his next mark. As he crept out of the tunnel in the alleyway, he noticed that there was less traffic than usual. This was a concern because less people meant less cover when he "liberated" valuables from snotty noblemen. He walked out of the alleyway to meet an old friend, a streetear, by the name of Majivh.
    Izzy shook hands with his old friend, "Majivh, it has been a while. What's the occasion for the low traffic?"
    Majivh may have been blind, but he could see just fine, "Oh? Why the worry? Afraid that you won't have anybody to hide behind when the nobles notice their pockets' are lighter than usual?" He and Izzy began to laugh, "There is a noblemen coming here from another city, he is planning on uniting our grand city of Aethyria with Black Harvest and Luna Divina to form an alliance."
    Izzy only scoffed, "More nobles mean more pockets to pick. Might as well check out the festivities, right?"
    Izzy began to walk toward the keep, but Majivh placed a firm grip on his shoulder, "You're from Zero-AE, the moment you walk in there the guards will be all over you. Not to mention when they realize that you were their 'unknown guest' last night."
    Izzy turned and bowed to Majivh, "I appreciate your concern, but have you ever heard of someone, let alone a guard, who could catch me?" And Izzy took off for the Keep.

    Chapter 1 END

    Chapter 2 BEGIN

    As Izzy was strolling around the Markets, he began to hear a girl's voice. It seemed the voice, and the person as well, were in distress or trouble. As a man, Izzy could not refuse a woman's cry for help and ran in the voice's direction, passing many late party-goers and shop owners along the way. It eventually led to the Plaza, the mid-way area between the Markets and the Gardens, which had a giant fountain in the middle and the Keep in the background, creating a powerful image of wealth and beauty in Aethyria. As he looked around, Izzy finally caught a glimpse of a girl being dragged away by a group of nobles dressed as commoners. He could tell they were nobles because the gold earrings and their walk, which screamed nobility and wealth.
    He raced to where he last saw the girl, hearing her yell, "Let go of me you beasts. I will have my father arrest you and you will never see the light of day again!"
    The girl was being held back by two guys who looked to be trained fighters and a third guy, who had to be the leader, was standing off-side with a smirk on his face. He knew that he could get into a lot of trouble for assaulting a noble, but if he didn't do something - and soon - that girl might be hurt, or worse! He dashed out of cover and used a planter nearby to jump above the leader, delivering a powerful knee attack to the left side of his face. Moving from there, Izzy struck the minion on his left with a swift palm-thrust to the man's stomach, then another one to his face, breaking the minion's nose in the process.
    The third guy got the jump on Izzy, grabbing and lifting him up in a crushing bear hug. Izzy acted quickly and locked his legs around the minion's and pulled them out. This made the minion fall on his back and Izzy, using this momentum, used his torso to knock the wind out of him. The minion's hands released its grip around Izzy's body and fell lifelessly to the ground. Izzy stood up and tried to regain his composure, only to see the once captive girl free as a bird.
    Izzy stood up straight, "You okay?" The girl nodded, "Why were these guys after you?"
    The girl suddenly got flustered, she spoke in a dignified voice, "You know, it's customary to introduce yourself before asking questions like that."
    Izzy just stared at her, "Fine. I'm Izzy, Izzy Virtue. Now. Why were these guys after you?"
    The girl was about to answer when a bolt of energy hit the ground at Izzy's feet. They both turn to see the leader of the group standing up with a vengeful look on his face. He suddenly formed a sphere of energy in his palm and proceded to throw it at Izzy. He jumped out of the way just in time to see the man get even angrier.
    The man finally spoke, "Who are you? Why are you bothering my wife-to-be and I?"
    The girl only screamed in deifance, "How many times do I have to tell you Edward? I will never marry a snotty, stuck-up, block-headed noble like you in any number of years!"
    Izzy stood stern in his place, "Take a clue man, she's just not into you. I would go and look for another 'wife-to-be' if I was you." And he raised his fist to Edward, in a mocking mood, "Unless you want to get your a** kicked again." With that little comment, he grinned.
    Edward, began to step back then quickly turned away and sprinted for the Plaza, screaming all the way, "I'll get you for this, whoever you are! You will hear from my parents and the guard!" And he disappeared behind the corner-market stores. As it finally grew calm, Izzy let out a long breath and stretched his arms to the sky. As the girl was about to thank Izzy, he had already started to leave for the Plaza.
    The girl screamed at him, "Excuse me. Izzy, was it? Thank you." Izzy stopped walking, whipped his head around with a smile, and just laughed. Now this girl was angered, he just laughed at her thanks! Her face turned red with rage, "What's so funny? I just thanked you and all you can do is mock me!?"
    Izzy now turned his entire body around, but still kept the smirk he had on his face, "No, no, no, I'm not mocking you. It's just that you asked me if I was Izzy. But I distinctly remember you saying that it's customary to introduce yourself before asking questions, right?" He watched as the girl's face suddenly turned red from embarassment rather than rage, she looked away from him, tried staring at the ground. After a moment of silence, "So, what's your name chick?"
    The girl was now beet red from anger, "How dare you address me as 'chick'! My name is Phynn, Phynn Roseria, a noblewoman from the Gardens! Now that I introduced myself, I might as well ask you, where are you from?" Now it was Izzy who was speechless, he never met a girl as fiesty as her before. What would he say? The truth couldn't hurt could it?
    So, as nonchalantly as he could be, Izzy said, "Oh me? I'm from the Slums, or what your people call 'Zero-AE'. Now tha-" Suddenly, a quartet of feet could be heard behind them, followed by the screaming of 'Freeze!' and 'Halt, Slummer!' and the like. Jude sighed, "Well, sorry Phynnie, but some guards decided to crash our romantic moment. Looks like that kiss will have to wait." And he laughed as he ran off, dodging the guards and fleeing to the upper-streets where he could lose them.
    As Izzy jumped from roof to roof, Phynn could only watch and think, "Izzy Virtue from the Slums? Maybe not all Slummers are as bad as father thought."

    Chapter 2 END