Chapter Eleven

"Evasive Maneuvers"

September 3rd

"Ahhhh! Dammit I hate that!" Cody exclaimed as he and Taschen materialized in the hallway on the Tipton's twenty third floor not ten feet from the door to his family's suite. His skin was tingling rather painfully and he felt like his body had just been stitched back together.

"You get used to it…"

The moment he felt the arrival of the Children of Light in the Tipton, Jarran was on the move. He rapidly powered up and sent a lance of negative energy into the window overlooking the street below, the glass shattered and exploded inward from the sudden change in air pressure. His aura deflected the flying shards as he raced towards the window and dove through it. As Jarran passed through the damaged window frame a puff of thick black smoke slammed into him and left his black as night plate armor in place of the stolen clothing.

Jarran let gravity pull him downward, increasing his speed and glanced over his shoulder while throwing out his arm on the opposite side he'd turned his head to balance the drag it created. The two Children of Light were right behind him, the boy Taschen who he'd seen the night before in the warehouse resplendent in his red and gold armor followed by the young man that had left the Tipton as Jarran had arrived. Both of them were surrounded by a golden aura, indicating to him that they were both defensive Champions and together were more than a match for him.

A lance of golden light flashed by Jarran so close that he felt the heat of the energy through his armor. He flipped over so that his back was to the street below as they continued falling straight down and returned fire forcing the Children of Light to spread themselves apart. How had they found him so quickly? More beams of light came towards him, but Jarran evaded them and fired twice as many lances of negative energy back at them, momentarily lighting up the entire side of the Tipton as the windows reflected the neon red light.

The ground was getting too close for comfort now and Jarran rolled back over and willed the darkness to provide him sufficient lift to fly straight out over the streets and intersections below. Taschen was hot on his tail, but it seemed that he'd lost the other one for the moment as the young man struggled with flying and eventually gave it up, landing clumsily on the street.

"One down, one to go," Jarran muttered in annoyance as he dodged another round of light attacks by cutting a corner sharply and veering off onto a new street forty feet above it. His overall mission had been a success; he'd located the dormant Children of Light and had awakened them. Now all he needed to do was link up with Chiam and together they would both take them out. It's not that Jarran couldn't have done it himself; it was just that his father had ordered him to maintain his cover as long as possible and let Chiam do the fighting until the rest of the Champions of Chaos arrived.

"I've got this, go check on them!" Taschen yelled as he rapidly sped away in pursuit of Jarran seeing that Cody's ability to fly wasn't fully developed yet and he couldn't maintain the speed or altitude of the chase. Without argument, Cody slowed his rate of descent and landed clumsily on a sidewalk about a block from the Tipton. Ignoring all the stares and cries of alarm he received, Cody took off sprinting for the hotel to check on his family. If anything had happened to them…he'd never forgive himself for not being there for them when they had needed him the most.

Sparks of light erupted between Zack and Kasen as their swords violently slammed together and lightning raced across the blades. Even as they impacted, Zack was beginning to pull away knowing that Kasen's greater strength would allow the older White Knight to disarm him if he wasn't careful as had been proven several times already. Zack dodged out of the way of a follow up attack, feeling like he was moving slowly and awkwardly compared to Kasen's confident flowing movements.

"What are you doing?" Kasen demanded, catching Zack on the ankle with the flat of his blade as he feigned a lunging attack, forcing the younger man to hop backward on his good leg.

"Yeowch!" Zack exclaimed, stopping to stand on one foot while letting the injured leg hang in the air. He looked up and glared at his mentor, "I don't know, you tell me!"

"You're not supposed to fight like that, that's how defensive Champions battle others, not offensive ones like you!"

"I don't even know what that means and I'm getting sick of this shit! Casius pulled me from my home while I died, I didn't know about any of this Champion or Children of Light or White Knight stuff. I was a regular guy a few days ago and now you expect me to be a pro!" Zack ranted, angry at the constant belittling of his limited fighting abilities. He experimentally put the foot of his injured leg back on the ground and started putting some weight on it.

"You have less than three days now to train and one day to rest before Earth is invaded!" Kasen yelled back, clearly fed up with Zack's attitude.

"Then train me, stop bitching at me!" Zack paused as he reigned in his emotions and continued in a calmer voice, "I'm only doing this because I want to protect my brother and mother… What else do you want from me?" Sensing that perhaps he had gone too far by yelling, Kasen answered in a more calm and sincere voice.

"I just don't want to see the enemy chew you up and spit you back out like a common mortal."

"Then train me; and this time, tell me what the hell you want me to do!"

"As you wish; attack me."

Half an hour later Kasen finally called an end to their long day of training. After spending countless hours dodging beams of light, fighting demons and engaging in close quarters fighting with his mentor, Zack was completely worn out and he fell to his knees to relieve his feet from carrying his weight. He was exhausted, both mentally and physically, his body ached all over while his mind had gone numb. Perhaps it was because of this unusual condition that he experienced what happened next.

"Good work Zack, good work…" Kasen whispered, clearly tired from the long day of training him.

Zack didn't answer however as he held up his hands and stared at them. They were covered in blood, bright red blood that had been freshly spilled and had washed over his hands and down his arms. He was feeling equally disgusted by what he had been forced to do at the same time that there was also an intense wave of hatred radiating within him that was slowly being replaced by feral satisfaction at the sight of the blood on his hands.

He then heard Cody's voice in his head, though he had trouble identifying it at first because of how angry he sounded. 'Even if it takes me the rest of my life, I will hunt the rest of your kind down without mercy until I draw my last breath!" Then an image of a man with light brown hair took shape in Zack's mind and he saw the stranger's brown eyes widen in surprise and disbelief for a brief moment before the life left his eyes forever.

"Don't lose yourself to bloodlust brother, end this now…" Zack whispered, knowing that he was somehow reliving a horrible event that his twin had experienced. He couldn't explain how he knew it, he just did.

Zack's power suddenly surged to new heights as a storm of Cody's anguished emotions coursed through him, brought on by the memory of having to kill another human being. Kasen watched on in awe as brilliant white light surrounded his student and wrapped snugly against his body. The brilliant intensity of the light slowly decreased as it took shape, momentarily leaving a very dirty and bruised Zack encased in a suit of thin yet durable pearly white plate armor.

Without warning Zack screamed in anguish and then fell forward onto his face completely unconscious. The armor faded away as quickly as it had appeared and the young man lay still on the ground. Kasen walked over to him and picked Zack up, uncertain about what had provoked the boy into unlocking his armor, a major milestone for a Child of Light, but extremely pleased with his progress nonetheless.

"We'll get a good meal in you and then you can rest until morning Zack. You've come so far in such a short time, but there is still much for you to learn before you're ready."

"He got away," Taschen exclaimed, disgusted with the turn of events as he arrived back at the Martin's suite an hour later. Night had fallen outside and he was reluctant to blunder around in the dark while the Child of Darkness could easily slip past him and cause trouble elsewhere.

With Casius off in the Haven Realm on some secret mission that he wouldn't disclose any information about and Dante still tracking Chiam, Taschen felt that his place was with Future Cody and the three newly awakened Children of Light. Cody was firmly convinced that Jarran had been sent to Earth to locate the Martin twins and Max and then report back to Chiam who would return to Boston at a later time and assassinate them, depriving Earth of half its Champions in a single blow.

"We have to leave now," Cody said to Taschen without preamble and he nodded his agreement.

"The safest place is Dante's house, it's a fair distance from here," Taschen offered, remembering that there were several Paladins living in his friend's neighborhood who were kept a vigilant eye out for any Demon activity.

"We need to get moving then, before they can come back and follow us," Cody agreed, addressing his family before turning to look at Max, "Max, you need to come as well, they'll be after you too.

"You'd better come explain that to my father then. I think he's had enough of me in danger for one day…"

A/N: Sorry for the shortness. Chapter's 12 and 14 are being royal pains and affecting everything around them.

Looks like Jarran made a clean getaway. Also, does this mean Zack has permanently attained his Level Three powers? O_o