Aelita and Jeremy must have gotten into a fight. I thought as I watched Aelita storm out of the school from the bench. She left the school grounds and I waited for a few seconds, then I followed her as closely as I could without being noticed. My mostly blonde hair was down, I was wearing black clothes, and I was wearing a black hat with black gloves attached to my waist. Of course I couldn't do anything about the purple patch in my hair, or the jagged scars I had accumulated over the past year, courteous of XANA, the virus on the damned supercomputer that I kept wishing we could turn off but couldn't. I had my hat that looked like one of the hats from my favorite movie, "Zorro". I figured thinking to myself, that the way things were going between the two "Love Birds", Aelita would leave him sooner or later.

I followed her on the ground, until she turned down a street of flat topped houses. I climbed onto the rooftops and followed her like a cat, which was my Lyoko form, without a sound made. After a couple of minutes, I noticed a group of shady figures following her at a distance. Aelita made a wrong turn, and was immediately trapped in a dead-end dark alley. As they trapped her, a knife was pressed against my throat.

"Going somewhere?" A masculine voice asked from behind me.

I grinned and replied, "Yes, Yes I am." Then I took the guy down, before he had time to comprehend what I said. I made sure to keep the struggle noise level as low as possible. His bones broke and rendered him senseless. After I finished up, I dropped the body down the alleyway into a trash can, where it landed noisily. The attackers stopped for a second but continued down the alley way stopping a few feet in front of her. "Trying to run? Why not stay and let us have some fun?"

My anger flared and I jumped down on the back two guys. The others turned around and I grinned from under my hat and eye mask. I quickly slid on my gloves, as I had an encounter with a knife or two that Aelita knew about. I quickly dispatched the two that I jumped on, and proceeded to stand my ground. Two goons charged me and I backed up then as they stabbed at me. Twisting, I thrust my hands into their elbows causing them to miss and a couple bones to break. They cried out in pain as they dropped to the ground. I continued my slow, taunting walk towards the rest of the gang. Some of them quirked and started shaking at my approach. I continued my evil smile and walk. The others that weren't shaking, charged at me with their brass, steel, gold, and bronze knuckles. I started to withdraw my two short swords hidden within their scabbards, but slid them back in immediately, ducked, and ran low to the ground like I would on Lyoko. They swung at me but I weaved and dodged all their blows. They whirled around expecting me to be standing upright behind them, but I quickly spun around on the ground and knocked them off their feet. They fell flat on their asses and shouted profanities at me. I put them out of their misery, quickly knocking them out. After knocking them out, I continued taunting and intimidating the few remaining by walking forward.

This time the leader, or who I assumed was the leader, quaked at my approach. I grinned evilly at them and spoke one word in a tone that wouldn't allow questions. "Leave." They scattered hitting each other in their attempts to get away from me. I walked normally up to Aelita. "Ma'am? Ma'am are you okay?" I thought about what I asked for a second, then commented, "That was dumb of me... Of course you aren't okay. Ma'am did they touch, hurt, harm you in anyway?"

"My privacy." She giggled. I was amazed that she joked about her close encounter but hid it. "Just kidding, they didn't even get close enough to invade any part of my body."

"That's good. I got here just in time." I replied. Piling the bodies up around the one I had to kill, I noticed there was a general denominator about all the men I killed. All white males in their mid to upper-30's with the same dragon tattoo on their right biceps and within the dragon was inscribed "Bane des amoureux" or Bane of the Lovers. I internally cringed at the name. It was fitting for what I was doing... I loved her, more than anything in the world, even more than the air, the plants, animals, anything. Unfortunately, Jeremy was in love with her at the time, and things had been going well between the two. I just hoped the name of that gang didn't apply to me.