Chapter Ten: the shattered light.

"it has been said before, power ultimately corrupts. but what has not been said is that ultimate power doesn't mean anything if it's wielder isn't smart enough to know how to use it properly, no matter how corrupt they are."
"one who is master of their own power must first learn to control the power corruption offers..."

-emperorwolf and Neowolf.

it had stopped raining by this time...
benson, kevin, ian, khyber, lily and amelia sat in the dining room of kevin's home, when the doorbell rang downstairs. kevin stood up to answer it, but benson raised a paw "take me, too, afterall i'm paying!"
kevin nodded and picked up his friend, placing him on his shoulder, and headed downstairs.
the doorbell rang again.
"i'm coming, i'm coming!" kevin called.
once he reached the front door, he opened it to see a leopard in a fast-food uniform, holding a plastic bag, he wore a red cap that was slightly loose. "your order?" he asked
kevin nodded " do you take 'little' money?" kevin asked jokingly.
the leopard smiled, and grabbed the brim of his cap "no problem" he removed his hat with a flourish, revealing a little otter wearing an identical uniform "my assosiate can take it!" he announced joyously.
the little otter was also holding a bag. "this must be YOUR order, then?" he said motioning to benson.
benson smiled "that'd be right!"
the otter leapt from his perch, onto the shoulder of his comrade, then ran down his arm, ending up in the cap
"here you go."
the leopard brought the cap closer to benson, so that his partner could hand over the order.
benson accepted the bag, and handed over the pay "was it fifteen-ten?"
"actually, it's only 14.12" the otter corrected.
the leopard laughed "we're offering a discount for kindred spirits! ... but don't tell our boss, we don't wanna get fired!" he continued laughing.
kevin smirked "pay less? who'd pass THAT up?"
the little fox on his shoulder playfully hit him in the neck "be nice!" benson turned to the giant leopard "don't worry, we'll keep this a secret."
he smiled and handed the larger bag to kevin. "thanks, liitle guy." he laughed, then looked at his partner "well, we better get a move on, eh syrus?"
syrus pouted "do i HAVE to ride undercap again?"
"you tryin' to say something 'bout my head?"
syrus laughed "oh, nothing..."
"it could rain again at any moment..."
"i'd rather get soaked than ride undercap, carl."
carl laughed, and put his cap on, syrus still inside "that's because you're an otter, you LIKE being wet!"
"OH COME ON! really?!" came a muffled yell from beneath the cap, and then carl began to spasm
"ow, OW! okay, no pulling my hair!" he pleaded
benson smirked "i've got to remember that one..."
kevin whimpered "please don't..."
benson hugged his friend's neck "i'm only kidding! as if i'd torture my best friend"
carl laughed "you could take a lesson from this little fox, syrus." and he lifted his cap a little bit.
syrus stuck out from beneath the brim, and breathed "go suck a twig, cat."
"pff, that's not a very good one." carl joked, and walked off.
kevin turned his gaze " they're an interesting pair, aren't they?"
benson shrugged "yeah, they seemed like good friends, didn't they? now can we get back, i'm sure everyone's hungry." the little fox reminded his friend.

---

soon, they were back on the second floor.
"instant noodles!" benson hollered "who ordered the Miso?"
ian waved at him "over here!"
benson tossed him the bucket.
khyber called out "any roast pork in there?"
"going over!" he tossed the bucket of noodles to khyber.
lily walked over, and looked in the bag "tofu?" she asked
benson fished his arm into the bag, withdrawing one labelled 'fried tofu'
"it's fried, that okay?"
"yep!" she took the tub.
benson looked into the bag "i got.... miso with menma... so, you must've ordered the soy, amelia?"
she nodded and recieved the tub.
ian slurped his noodles, then looked at kevin "what'd you get, kev?"
kevin opened his own, giant tub, it steamed.
kevin stuffed his mouth "s'plain with beef sauce 'n curry." he answered with a full mouth.
lily coughed "that sounds kinda bad."
"eesh" ian moaned "i can't believe you can EAT that..."
kevin simply swallowed, and took another mouthful "contrary, s'a lot better than it sounds!" he replied with a contented expression.
everyone laughed, and dug in to their noodles.
khyber chuckled "i'm glad you talked us into this, ben!"
benson grunted in affirmation, paying more attention to his food.
everyone laughed, happy.

---

outside, donovan, the green cloaked man, stood at the foot of one of the surrounding trees.
"so this's his little foxhole, is it?"
he clicked his fingers and a fireball appeared in his hand.
"they do say foxes are associated with fire..."

above him, jack, the man in the blue cloak sighed, closing his novel.
"the moron's going to start a forest fire... that's subtle(!)" he moaned in boredom, just as donovan threw flames at the trees.
"FIRE, FIRE!" he yelled mockingly, and out ran kevin, noodles half-hanging out of his mouth.
kevin scrambled for the hose, but a wall of fire sprang up to stop him, he glared at the cloaked human
"what the FUCK ARE YOU DOING?!"
donovan laughed cruelly "where's the technomage, dog?"
just then, the others ran out of the house, panicked.
"ah, there you are, little fox."
benson stared "you lit this?!"
"come with me, or everyone burns... just like your house..."
benson glared, staring daggars at the man "you... son of a..."
the air began to tremble, lights flickered, the ground shook.
"FUCK YOU!!!!" benson screamed, and tried conjouring a grenade launcher.
donovan threw a wall of flame, setting the clearing alight, and dissolving the construct.
everyone screamed in terror.
everyone, that is, but ian.
"get DOWN!" he bellowed, drawing his gun.
everyone hit the deck.
BLAM! the bullet tore through the air, ripping the flames away and crashing into donovan, both bullet and flame.
when the smoke cleared, jack was standing in front of donovan, he had stopped the bullet with his book.
donovan jumped "J-jack?!"
jack turned to him "you moron, this was supposed to be subtle, walk in, take the fox, and leave, not throw laevatenin at the area." he scolded, and his book tore itself apart, pages hanging in the air.
donovan's face turned to terror "please, no..."
"here i write the end... to a story of a fool."

benson and the others watched in horror as the pages formed a large sword.
and quick as lightning, donovan lost his head. his body disintegrating into a mass of jumbled words and letters.

ian stared, but his gun didn't falter "who the hell...?"
jack turned to him "i am Jack Shay, of the shattered light. i have come for the technomage..."
lily turned to benson, unsure "ben...? you're...?"
benson stepped back "why? ... w-what do you want with me?!"
"our leader has need of you, specifically your ability to channel mystic energies through machinery."
"a-and if i refuse....?"
jack smiled cruelly "then there'll be five new corpses here today, and i'll make you watch as i make them."
kevin stomped, snarling "think so? i doubt it!"
benson ran forward, and grabbed onto kevin's foot "don't! he'll kill you!"
ian cocked his gun, completely abandoning his shy and nervous facade "ben... kev, get back... NOW"
amelia turned to him "what is he?" she asked in fear
"the shattered light are the humans who mutated from the henolin. they're also the ones who robbed the bank last night."
jack adjusted his glasses "precisely, and you are 'ian buckler' but you've had many names heven't you?" he smirked.
ian spat "of course you'd know. he was donovan, the laevatennin; a fire master... you're jack, the reader; able to find any thruth, and manipulate the written word."
jack nodded "and, as of recently, that which they are printed upon."
khyber looked at ian "how do you know... about this guy?"
ian threw off his jacket, allowing crimson flames to envelop him briefly, before a pair of huge black wings sprouted from his back, and the flames died out.
everyone stared.
jack smiled "because he is Kenziel, the fallen angel, previous guardian for the gates of the heavens"
ian glared "shut your damn mouth, freak." ian tapped his music player, turning it on.
a heavy beat droned out.
"conflict for the spirit by alebrio studios, how appropriate" jack remarked
"kevin, take everyone, and run. get as far away as you can."
kevin tried to argue "b-but you'll..."
ian smiled at him "i can hold my own, living for a few millenia teaches you some neat tricks... now get out of here."
kevin nodded, it was no use arguing, he gathered up his friends and ran.

jack sighed "a game of chase... better than nothing, i suppose..."
"you are not hunting today, monster..."
jack smiled, and launched towards the fallen angel.
ian blocked the sword with his gun, knocking jack back.
he took aim, but jack was fast, he was behind him in seconds, blade to ian's throat.
"that was over too quick, you're no fun, angel."
ian grit his teeth "i'll see you in hell for this..."
"true, because you are a fallen... untrue, because i am not dying anytime soon."
"not what i meant."
jack tilted his head, confused "how so?"
ian looked up mockingly, and grabbed jack's arm tightly, just in time for a massive paw to slam down on the both of them.
the music stopped.
kevin stepped off them, they both looked like he'd broken all their bones.
ian's music player lay in pieces, that was obviously why the music stopped.
in his arms, his friends whimpered in fear
benson looked down "is... is he ...?"
ian staggered up. "i'm...okay..."
jack moaned in pain.
ian picked up the sword and burnt it.
"i knew you'd never listen to me, big guy." he remarked "you're too headstrong to listen to what i say."
kevin smirked nervously "but that attitude just saved your life, wing-boy."
ian laughed, and retracted his wings, they folded under his shirt and sunk beneath his skin. "hope you don't mind my thanking you then?"
benson leant over the edge of kevin's paw "is it true? you're an angel?"
amelia cringed "i'm not gonna go to hell for hitting you so much, am i?" she asked uncertainly.
"i just got stomped out by a giant german shepherd, a little slap is less than a pinch in pain-comparison." he joked.
ian grabbed jack by the collar, lifting him off the ground.
"if anyone's hellbound, it's jack here." he snarled.
kevin knelt beside ian, letting his passengers get off "how? you aren't going to kill him....are you?"
ian shook his head "look down"
everyone looked down, and saw black chains growing out of the ground, slowly.
benson reached out to touch them
"don't do that, trust me."
benson jerked his paw back.
"what are they?" he asked, eyes full of amazement.
ian sighed, and tapped his foot, opening an ominous hole around the chains.
everyone stepped back.
"to put it in terms you'll understand... it's kind of a gate to hell..." he explained.
jack began to weakly flop about, trying to get away, an impossible task, as most of his bones were broken. "please....don't do it.... i beg you..."
ian waved a finger, as if to scold him "fact one: you attack my friends, you get punished. fact two: you've committed neumerous evil acts. fact three: ... evil..." ian dropped him "...belongs in hell."
jack screamed as the chains grabbed him, pulling him down into the abyss.
then the hole closed, as if it had never been there.
ian looked at his friends "i hope this doesn't change anything. don't worry, i'm not going to send you to hell if i get angry."
amelia hid behind khyber "provide proof!"
"if i was going to, wouldn't i have already done it, miss 'beats me up over every little thing' ?"
they still weren't convinced.
"if you can get along with a giant, who could destroy entire cities with ease, surely you can find it in your hearts to get along with an angel?"
benson sighed "that would be pretty hypocritic of us, if we denied, huh?"
kevin looked away awkwardly "n-not like i would d-destroy cities, though..."
ian looked at amelia, who was trembling "that comment not to your liking?"
amelia walked forward, and shakily spoke "i-ian...?"
he nodded "yes?".
she punched him square in the face, knocking him over. "you SHOULD have TOLD us what you were SOONER!"
ian smiled, mouth bleeding. "good to know you're okay..." he wiped the blood off "...and i supose i could have, yes." he looked up with the 'are you serious' face "but it's a little difficult to just say 'oh by the way, guys, did i ever tell you i'm an angel?' yeah, like you'd have believed that!"
lily raised a paw "you could've shown us your wings?"
he shook his head "no, i couldn't have. they only grew back just now."
"grew back?" kevin asked
"they rip off an angel's wings when they make them a 'fallen' angel, an old friend of mine gave me something to help them grow back when i stepped out earlier."
beson made a wry smile "so i DIDN'T hallucinate."
"you didn't trip, either, my sister showed up and knocked you out. the tripping thing was a cover story."
benson kept smiling "that so?"
ian fidgeted "so... are we cool?" he asked nervously
benson walked forward, and threw an arm around him "yeah, we're cool. like you said, considering we're okay with a giant, an angel, who we've known since childhood, shouldn't be such a big deal"
kevin smirked "you were there for us when we needed you, we'd be pretty terrible people to abandon you after that."
ian sighed, forgiven.
"thanks guys, you're the best!" he looked around at the singed terrain, then at the minor burns to kevin's house. "i'll help you clean up later, kev."
kevin looked at him curiously "how?"
"repainting and stuff."
"okay... you're okay, right?"
"kevin, i've been through worse than being stomped on."
kevin jolted back "l-like what?"
ian thought "i'll tell everyone later, but i think our food's going cold right now!"
everyone's faces lit up, remembering their noodles.

---

ian waved his hands over the cold noodles, reheating them with a little angelfire.
his friends watched, eyes full of wonder.
lily clapped "that's amazing!" she gleefully cried as the beautiful golden embers danced in the air.
ian bowed "thanks, i'm a natural, you had to be if you wanted a nice hot meal during the dark ages." he remarked, although considering everything that had happened, he probably wasn't lying.
khyber pointed his chopsticks at ian "that a joke, or are you serious?" he asked, picking up his tub.
"it's not like i lived as a king, you know, i WAS living in exile after all." ian pointed out.
amelia nodded "that makes sense... but you spent all that time on earth, right?"
"right, i came here at the end of my previous lifetime."
kevin motioned to his bucket, and ian started to reheat it "that must've been hard... bein' a different person every 80 years..." he thought out loud.
ian shrugged "yes, but i suppose i got used to it, changing my appearance to that of a child every eight decades became normal to me. the wierd thing was that nobody asked how i existed, i was just a street child."
kevin nodded "and you came here... took on this 'ian' identity... i get that, but why'd you attend school?"
"i suppose i wanted to know how to function correctly on this world." ian looked over to the others "and, during that, i met these guys. did you know that ben was once completely mute?"
kevin shook his head "i didn't."
ian explained "ben was born without a voicebox, so he coldn't speak, you see."
benson coughed, drawing their attention "yes, i was wondering how i suddenly woke up with a voicebox one morning..." benson wondered.
"before then, ben used an improvised form of sign-language to communicate." ian told kevin.
"i still do, sometimes." benson called out.
kevin rubbed his chin "s'how'd ben suddenly get a voice?"
ian smirked.
benson stared "you...?"
"well... after we had that fight online... i remember i got pretty mad in it... and you lost your only family member shortly after... i felt bad, i had to do something..."
amelia spoke up "so what did you do, exactly?"
"well, after so many centuries, my wings had begun to grow back on their own, but i gave them up to give ben my grace, specifically, i blessed him with a voice of his own."
"you can do that?" khyber asked
ian gave him a bemused look "do i need to say that giving up my wings... was like if you decided to give up both arms?" he said seriously.
khyber sighed uncertainly "i-i see..."
"just one feather can cure any illness when used as inscense... but growing a brand new organ? it took both of my wings, especially since they were incomplete."
benson bowed his head "i... i'm sorry..."
ian finished heating kevin's noodles, and walked over and bumped benson playfully "do NOT be sorry. you've more than repayed me by simply being my friend!" ian noogied benson playfully.
benson slightly protested to the headlock, but he let his tail creep up the back of ian's shirt and dealt him the tickle torture, causing ian to break the hold and topple over.
benson sat on ian's back and continued to tickle him, laughing joyously "yield!" he chuckled.
ian laughed "okay! okay!! yield! YIELD!!"
benson got off him.
kevin paused from devouring his noodles, and chuckled "you two remind me of two brothers more than two friends"
lily slurped her noodles, then beamed "ian, can you show us your wings, please?"
ian discarded his jacket, and his wings unfurled, phasing through his shirt somehow.
amelia 'oohed' in admiration "they're magnificent."
ian blushed "th-thank you."
khyber took a mouthful from his bucket "why're they black, though?"
"because i'm a fallen... i'm without grace."
"so.... heaven hates you? just because you did the right thing?"
"by their standards i didn't. yes i saved a child's life, but i mercilessly slaghtered members of my own kind to do it."
benson huffed "sounds like heaven is full of pricks."
"don't say that. i want you all to be able to ascend one day." ian complained, concerned.
"well, if that's heaven, i can't see why."
"you'd prefer a seven-layered pit of nightmares? can you really say that?"
benson hung his head.

"i know two things..." the sad fox said.
everyone looked at him.
"one: i like being here, with all of you."
kevin smiled "thanks, pal."
"two: ... angelfire cooks like something amazing." he said happily.
everyone laughed

it was surely the wierdest morning they'd had, but it wasn't all bad, their friend could finally reveal himself to them, and they knew now that the shattered light was after benson, but they were down two members already, and they would make them lose more. they wouldn't let them take their friend, not as long as they had a giant and an angel on their side.

---

draco screamed viciously as he rewatched his brother's death through belle's crystal screen.
he screamed at it, and an unseen force shattered it to pieces.

mortimer backed up "i can't believe... this is just..."
belle retreated as well "this MUST be a trick... Jack can't die... how....?"
draco turned, likely glaring beneath his mask "that is just it, jack did not die. that bastard has sent him to hell... ALIVE."
belle glared at the broken screen, and repaired it with a wave of her hand.
jack appeared onscreen, in the middle of a white ash-desert, clothing tattered, glasses cracked, his face bled.
bleeding, the dead didn't bleed. draco was correct, jack was in hell, but he was alive.
draco waved a hand, the image flickered...
and after a forceful shockwave, jack fell onto the cavern floor, panicking.
"calm yourself, brother."
jack looked up to see his allies, and breathed slower.
"i...HATE...hell..."
"you are undamaged otherwise?"
jack stood, holding his left arm.
"apart from what you can see, yes."
draco placed his hand on his brother's shoulder. "did you meet the one known as 'the devil' brother?"
jack shuddered "satan..." jack closed his eyes "isn't the worst thing down there..."
draco noticed an odd mark on his older brother's neck.
"what is this marking, brother?"
as draco said this, a pair of fangs at least 20 centemeters long grew out of jack's mouth, and a horn potruded from the left side of his forehead.
belle and mortimer jumped back in horror.
jack opened his eyes, and the irises had turned a vibrant gold colour.
jack groaned, his voice distorted
"this form... it is a side effect... but it relates to what i was saying, brother, are you aware of the stories about the angel called the 'light bringer' ?"
draco tilted his head, and his voice trembled "you.. you do not mean...?"
jack nodded "the rebel king, the leader of the fallen..."
his three comrades stepped back
"...Lucifer Morningstar. he did this to me."
draco growled "wh-why?!"
"because a fallen allies himself with 'order' and since he knows that this is our enemy, he gave me a little 'boost' to help."
"you are a Fiend?"
jack nodded "i still have my sanity... but in return for helping us, he asked that we help him once this is all over..."
draco gulped "w-what does that entail, brother?"
jack's monsterous features retracted, and his voice normalised "he wants us to... destroy heaven... he will let us live as absolute kings of this world if we do this"
draco's fear became determination, and he laughed "well, then who are we to refuse this hospitality? we will proceed with our plan, and assist him afterwards, how will we tell him?"
"he knows, brother."
draco's evil mind began to storm with new thoughts, with the most powerful of the creator's "creations" assisting them, things would be easier, he turned to his allies.
"where is my dear cousin?"
they smirked evilly "in the back... only just alive... but he'll live."
draco knew now that the only things left to do were simple:
"POINT TWO: the technomage... POINT FOUR: ... we kill the fallen one with them, what is his name?"
"Fallen Kenziel." jack answered.
"so be it.. after that, we will assist our new benefactor... then, POINT FIVE: ..."
he paused, and his comrades smiled maliciously.
"...rule...the...world."

from this point on, the world faces it's greatest threat since the great co-collision, and this threat is named 'Draco Shay' ... the leader of the shattered light.

"from this point forward, we are no longer the 'shattered light' " draco announced
"we are the 'flame of the king' understood?"
the new members of the 'flame of the king' nodded.
armageddon is coming.
what...
will...
happen...
next...?