Chapter Seven

"Wolf In Sheep's Clothing"

Jarran Noh'Malkiri smiled smugly to himself as he made his way into Cheever's High School without hassle. He'd acquired new clothing the night before and had dressed like a 'skater', whatever that was, as an adult had commented about his garment choices on the street earlier that morning.

There were people moving all around him with all manner of skin, hair and eye colors which made it extremely easy for him to blend into the crowd. Nothing about his appearance made him stand out. He wasn't too comfortable with so many bodies in close proximity to him however, since as a Champion of the Chaos Realm he was given a wide berth by everyone in his home. The only time his personal space was violated frequently was during training by whomever he was sparring with or when Pandora just wanted to give him an affectionate touch. This was a new experience for him and he had to fight hard to block out the uneasiness he was feeling.

Nevertheless, Jarran felt like he was hot on the trail. Last night during his operation to acquire appropriate clothing for the following day, he had felt a brief flare of light energy with his sixth sense and he had hurried to locate the source before it faded away completely. He hadn't been able to pinpoint it exactly, but he had scouted the area all night and discovered this school in close proximity to where he believed he had sensed the light. It was only a matter of time now…

As the day progressed, Jarran became accustomed to the routine of the hour long classes the students were subjected too and the short period in between where they moved to their next one. He had figured out after his first disastrous attempt at sitting in on one that there was some sort of roster that determined who was supposed to be in the room and since he wasn't on it he stood out. Now, as classes were in progress, he wandered the hallways easily avoiding the few adults who policed the area for students out of class. On the rare occasion that he was questioned about what he was doing, Jarran just used the timeless excuse that he was going to the restroom and ducked into the nearest one for awhile.

All throughout the morning he methodically canvassed the entire school during every period of time that classes were in session in a powered up state, albeit a weak one, that broadcasted the darkness in a small radius around him. It was far too weak of an output to be detected beyond the school's boundaries so he felt relatively safe that none of the awakened Children of Light would be able to pick up on it. However, it was just enough power that if he came within fifty feet or so of a dormant Child of Light he could trigger an involuntary release of their power and zero in on them.

Midday approached and Jarran found himself caught up in the surge of people all heading to the same destination and he figured it was best to go with the flow. His cover was still completely intact and he didn't believe anyone gave him a second glance after he had passed. He was aware of a large number of girls staring at him and averting their eyes when he looked back at them. This didn't make him uncomfortable in the slightest though. Jarran had seen this reaction before and knew that he was receiving those looks because he was 'devilishly handsome' as Pandora described him and because Chiam had told him that women were drawn to men when they were in a powered up state and vice versa no matter which cosmic force it was.

Jarran looked nothing like his father except for sharing the same angular jaw line that was unremarkable and some streaks of black in his otherwise white blond hair that he surely had inherited from his mother along with his vividly green eyes. He had never known his mother, nor had he ever seen a picture of her, but during extremely rare moments when they were alone together Ashani would tell his son of her beauty and just how much he reminded him of her. In addition to what he had inherited, his extremely grueling Champion training had put him in the best shape of his life and it showed easily despite the baggy clothing he wore.

Briefly lost in thought about who his mother was, Jarran was taken aback when he found himself in a large room where countless numbers of smells assaulted his nose. He was in some kind of mess hall and was smelling dozens of alien dishes being served to the students who were packed into the room. The level of noise bothered him too, there was so much going on it was hard to pick up on auditory cues that would alert him to the smallest sign of danger. Surely the whole school couldn't fit into this large room, but it was such a large gathering that Jarran found it a pleasant surprise. He would stay here as long as the numbers of students remained high and continue scouting for…

Jarran blinked in surprise as he felt his mental radar ping off something to his immediate right and looked to the far side of the lunch room trying to locate the source. He was surprised how quickly he had found one of the dormant Children of Light, despite his extremely high intelligence and calculated planning. He made his way over to a table that had three people sitting at it.

There were two girls, both had straight shoulder length hair though one of them was brown while the other's hair was raven black. The one with the black hair also wore glasses and she was sitting across from a guy with bright red curly hair. Jarran unconsciously found his eyes drawn to the brown haired girl who was looking at the tray of food in front of her unmoving. She was the one and he immediately powered down so as not to arouse any suspicion from her. His best bet now would be to observe her, possibly even make contact, and find out where she lived so he could tell Chiam where to find her and maybe by being in close proximity to her the other two dormant Children might be revealed.

"I wonder where Cody is… It's not like him to miss school," the black haired girl commented to the guy she was talking to.

"Yeah, I haven't seen Zack either, though that's no surprise…" the red head replied, then turned to address the brown haired girl, "You haven't seen them either have you Max?"

"Uh, no I haven't," Max answered, her tone clearly indicating that something was bothering her.

"Are you ok?" the black haired girl asked.

"I feel…weird…" and then Jarran moved out of earshot of the group. He sat down at a mostly empty table several rows away with his eyes trained on the back of Max's head. So this girl was one of the Children of Light he was after, could it be that these other two people 'Zack' and 'Cody' be the other ones? This might take some time to figure out Jarran realized and started working on a plan to initiate contact with her in hopes that she would befriend him, making things a whole lot easier.

Now what would put him in her good graces very quickly? Then Jarran smiled evilly as an idea came to him. People who were rescued from certain death situations often developed a strong attachment to their rescuers. All he needed was to follow her until the time was right for that situation to occur and then be her knight in shining armor. As to what he would use to make her think she was in mortal peril…well, there were still a few Demons left running around the city.


This time around Zack took hold of his power from the start and leapt nimbly down into the 'Pit of Despair' as Kasen had called it earlier and stretched out his right arm, commanding the sword he had wielded against the Troll to reform. Fortitude sprang into existence in a flare of white light so quickly and giving off a sense of giddy excitement that Zack believed it was a living creature for a moment before he realized it was his own emotions flooding into his consciousness. He was starting to enjoy channeling the light and wielding his powers. As his aura of white light surrounded him, he looked up at Kasen.

"Bring it." Kasen rolled his eyes and signaled to someone out of Zack's line of sight.

"Begin!"

The pit wasn't overly large, maybe twenty or twenty five feet in diameter. It was going to be a close quarters battle for sure. Across the pit, a metal gateway opened and Orcs streamed into the pit, bellowing war cries and brandishing axes and crude swords at him.

Zack held up his left hand and released a pair of bolts of energy that sizzled and crackled across the open space and slammed into a pair of the Demons, disintegrating them completely. As the remaining Orcs closed in on him, Zack fell back on his instincts one again and began to move in a way he had never moved before. It was almost as if he was dancing among them, weaving in and out of the paths of their weapons and cutting them down before they knew what was going on.

In under a minute Zack had decimated all but one Orc who stood by the gate growling angrily at him. He tucked Fortitude back behind his left shoulder and then released his right arm in wide arc traveling across his body before letting go of the sword, propelling it toward the final Demon. Fortitude caught the Orc in the chest and imparted enough kinetic energy into the creature to hurl it backwards into the gate.

"Done!" Zack announced.

"You think you're done?" Kasen asked as he jumped down into the pit, "Yes, I can see you've finally learned how to crawl, but you are FAR from done." He made another signal with his hand and several smaller gates around them opened. A dozen Orcs rushed into the pit and encircled the two Children of Light, slowly closing in around them.

Zack felt the other man's power swell far above what he had felt when he was wielding it and the ground started shaking. What happened next was almost too fast for him to follow. Columns of light erupted out of the ground and trapped every single Orc. Then Kasen extended both arms to either side and a shockwave of white light exploded in all directions and vaporized all of the Demons upon contact.

"Killing Demons is child's play for people like you and me, which is why it is not our primary concern in combat."

"What is our concern?" Zack asked, cowed by Kasen's display of extraordinary power and control, somehow knowing that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"We have to fight the Children of Darkness and they are far more dangerous than any Demon."

"So…when do I start training to fight them?" Zack wondered.

"Right now!" Kasen answered, whipping his sword around so fast that it was a blur. Zack hadn't even seen him summon it…


Maxine Baker, a good friend of the Martin twins and Zack's one time girlfriend walked off the campus of Cheever's High School, glad that the day was over. Barbara Brownstein accompanied her as her parent's apartment wasn't too far from Max's.

"Feeling better?" Barbara asked, referring to Max's temporary bout of uneasiness at lunch.

"Yes, thanks," Max lied, not wanting to talk about it with her. She wasn't sure what had happened today, but ever since lunch she had been feeling an electric tingle crawl up and down her spine. It wasn't painful, but it was quite distracting.

"So did you see that drop dead gorgeous guy who walked by us at lunch?" Barbara asked, picking up on Max's subtle que that she wanted to talk about something else.

"Huh?"

"I really only saw him from behind as he walked past us, but Melanie told me all about him. She also said that he was looking right at you! How could you have missed him?" Barbara asked incredulously.

"I guess I was busy feeling sick?" Max snapped back, "Besides, I'm not interested in dating right now."

"Oh why not? You've been free for so long and Zack isn't going to change his ways any time soon…"

"Oh just shut it. I don't want to talk about it," Max interrupted, exasperated with the whole discussion. They walked the rest of the way home in silence and didn't talk to each other again until Barbara had to turn and head for her apartment a couple of blocks away.

"See you tomorrow Max and…sorry about all that stuff."

"It's ok Barb, I'm sorry I blew my top. Cya tomorrow."

Max continued walking home, her mind running in circles about nothing in particular. It came as a complete surprise to her when two men came out of nowhere and roughly grabbed hold of her. A hand clamped over her mouth to keep her screams from being heard and then she was forced into the back of a van with her captors. The doors slammed shut and everything went dark.


"Tell me where the other Children of Light are!" One of the spies demanded of Max who was tied to the chair that she was sitting in. Jarran watched and waited out of Max's sight as his agents interrogated her. He'd come up with this idea after leaving the school. He would come to her rescue, but it didn't hurt to question her before then just to be on the safe side.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Max screamed at them, struggling against her bonds.

"Have any of them ever contacted you?" The other spy asked.

"I don't…no, no one crazy like you has ever talked to me!" Jarran made the signal that he was ready to begin the rescue and stood up. He tapped into a small amount of darkness and summoned his obsidian sword into his hand. Defiance gleamed dully in the dim afternoon sunlight streaming in through the windows high above in the old storage facility adjacent to the warehouse where Jarran had arrived on Earth.

"I think you're lying girl. Perhaps our pet will help loosen your tongue." Both men turned away and left the building.

"What the hell?" Max stammered as a lone Orc entered her field of vision and approached her. She began screaming for help and Jarran obliged. He sprinted across the storeroom from where he had been sitting on a pile of boxes, leapt over a couple of empty stacked pallets, landed on his right foot, took a balancing step with his left and then swung Defiance just inches above Max's head with all of his weight to compensate for the lack of strength in his low power mode and watched in satisfaction and his blade buried itself in the Orc's chest. The lesser Demon made a strange gurgling sound as it died and then fell backwards anti-climatically.

Jarran left Defiance lodged in the Orc as he quickly hurried to untie the ropes holding Max to the chair. It would do better for his cover if she didn't get a good look at it or discover the extent of his powers. There was commotion and raised voices coming from close by as the two spies no doubt heard the creature fall. They were instructed to give Jarran just enough time to get Max free and start running with her before they gave chase that they wouldn't maintain for long.

"Oh my god, what was that thing? Oh thank you, thank you…" Max stammered as Jarran finally freed her.

"We've gotta get out of here," He said, in what he hoped was an appropriate tone of voice for someone running away from the 'bad guys'. Jarran admired the fact that she did not protest in the slightest, rather stood up right away and looked to him before they both broke into a fast paced run out of the building. As planned, the spies gave chase for a short distance before giving up.

Once he determined that they were at a safe distance, Jarran stopped running in order to give Max a break. She was breathing heavily and he found himself pretending to be winded as well, even though he was far from it.

"Are you ok?" He asked, adding a note of concern to his voice.

"Yes," Max panted, "Thanks to you." She suddenly walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him. Jarran returned the hug, playing along perfectly as the bashful hero.

"How can I ever thank you enough?" Max asked, pulling away slightly so that she could look up into his face as Jarran stood half a head taller than her.

"You could let me walk you home?" He suggested and Max gratefully accepted his chivalrous offer.

"Do you know what that thing was?"

"Unfortunately I do…"


A/N: You didn't think I'd let my best OC sit on the sidelines for long do you? Jarran is on Earth, blending in with no one the wiser as to his presence and now he's begun searching for the dormant Children of Light, Max, Zack and Code. Thanks to a flare of light energy near Cheever's High School (that was Cody using his power to prove the story he was telling to his family was true) Jarran decided to check there first and found Max!

Now that he's found Max, how long will it be before he finds the twins especially now that he has her trust? What a way to win a lady, intentionally put her in harms' way and then come to her rescue! Boy Jarran can put on a good act huh?

Meanwhile Zack is improving with every training bout, but Kasen shows the young warrior that he still has much to learn by going critical with his power and vaporizing those Demons in the blink of an eye. Play time's over now as Zack directly fights Kasen for the first time as the older CoL prepares him for combat against the Champions of Chaos.

Stay tuned for Chapter Eight: "Preparations" because you won't find out what happens to Jarran and Max until Chapter Nine: "Enemy In Thy Midst" muwaha! Reviews make it happen faster. Motivation baby =)

Shout out (and my thanks) to Tiger, Waldo and Wyn for keeping me going strong and picking my brain on the forums!

Also, I'm adding Character Analysis's for the characters seen in the Chaos Series with information collected from all of the stories as well as some bonus info from my own notes on them. This should appear in the Chaos Realm forums soon. Feel free to join in and ask questions or leave comments. First up is my bad boy Jarran himself.