Kernel Fleck

Kernel Fleck
First appearance	Demon Thief
Created by	Darren Shan
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Relatives	Caspian Fleck (father) Melena Fleck (mother) Annabella Fleck (sister, deceased)
Powers	Typical Mage powers Creating windows using panels of light Mental scrying

Cornelius "Kernel" Fleck is the protagonist of Demon Thief, the second book of the series The Demonata by Darren Shan, and one of the three main characters in the series.

Fictional Biography

Demon Thief

Main article: Demon Thief

Kernel Fleck had magical abilities as a child - he constantly saw strange patches of light around him which he could seemingly manipulate through the power of his mind and the motion of his hands. He can make windows(portals) out of these patches. However, when he mentioned it to his parents and teachers, he was assumed to be crazy and consequently ignored. As a result, Kernel had no friends and was lonely throughout his childhood.

As Kernel lay restlessly in bed one night, he began to arrange the patches of light without knowing he was slowly assembling a window into the realm of the dreaded Lord Loss, a demon master. As the window formed, he was lured through it. After being brought into the demon master's universe, Kernel successfully transformed one of Lord Loss' demon servants, Artery, into a human child, which he named Art. When he returned, he could not remember any of the trip, but, despite his parents' mystification, they accepted the new baby as his younger "brother". Art is the reason Kernel goes in to Demonata - the universe of demons.

Kernel's parents, disturbed by the coming of Art, moved into a village to start a new life. A year later, an old woman there summoned the demon Cadaver into the universe of humans, who slaughtered dozens of schoolchildren and stole Art from Kernel. Kernel joined "The Disciples" who were pursuing Cadaver, to try to get back his brother. After a long pursuit they went into the realm of Lord Loss again, and it was found that Lord Loss had ordered Cadaver to steal Art back from Kernel. After another long struggle, in the chess board of Lord Loss, Kernel found that he himself was the "Demon Thief" (i.e. the thief who stole the demon).

Demon Apocalypse

Main article: Demon Apocalypse

Kernel is next seen in Demon Apocalypse, sitting in a cave by a fire as Beranabus brings in Grubbs, by now 30 years has passed since Demon Thief and he only looks around 16 years old. This version of Kernel has grown into a warrior seemingly cold and dead on the outside; he hides his shattered emotions on the inside. At first when he meets Grubbs, he greets him with frosty stares and indifferent remarks.

At one point, whilst fighting in the Demonata Universe, Kernel is so infuriated by his lack of courage that he sends him back to the human universe. When Kernel and Beranabus join him again two days later in Demonata time scale and seven weeks in human time scale, the Demonata have started invading through a tunnel in Carcery Vale and have already massacred millions.

Later that day Sharmilla Mukherji enters their cave and tells them how the Demonata have progressed, together they go to meet with 11 other Disciples (including Shark) and plan an attack on the Demonata to send them back to their own universe, unbeknown to Kernel until then − the only way to send them back is to sacrifice either himself or Grubbs.

They travel in army helicopters with army troops to Carcery Vale, when they get there they find it bursting with Demonata and blooded human carcases. Kernel follows Beranabus off their helicopter, he charges through the crowds of Demonata throwing bolts of pink energy at them; but is blocked from the cave where the tunnel is by Demonata. As he tries to fight off the Demonata, he is struck in the eyes by Spine who injects him with flesh eating maggots that cause him to writhe in pain.

Grubbs makes a magical connection to the rocks beneath him that has Bec's soul trapped in. Together they create a shield around themselves, Kernel and Beranabus. Kernel is pulled into the connection and the three of them chant in unison and destroy the entire world outside of their shield.

Kernel, Beranabus and Grubbs awake by the cave's entrance, as Beranabus tries to make sence of what happened in the battle; Kernel sits alone and removes the rest of the maggots from where his eyes once were. Beranabus concludes that Kernel, Grubbs and Bec's soul sent them back in time, which therefore means that together the three of them make up Kah-Gash; as only Kah-Gash would have the power to do something like that.

When the time is right, the trio enter into the cave where the tunnel is being made, there they find Juni Swan and Lord Loss chanting and Spine, Artery and Femur dancing around Dervish and Bill-E who were tied up and gagged. They uncover that Juni is actually a disguised Nadia Moore and another fight entails, Kernel is paired off again with Spine; who tries to dig his stinger into his eye-sockets even more, Kernel manages to get the upperhand and wraps Spine around a stalagmite.

When Juni is killed, they believe that the tunnel is destroyed but it turns out the it was Bill-E who is the key to the tunnel, Grubbs deals with Bill-E in the most painless way possible. Lord Loss gloats over the death, but then Bill-E's body is brought back into motion Grubbs' magic and transforms into Bec. She destroys Spin and Artery; and then she disfigures Lord Loss and scares him back to the Demonata universe.

They retreat back to the Grady household and Kernel sleeps in pain. Later he joins Beranabus outside and together they make a window to return to the Demonata universe, Grubbs comes out to meet them and together they leave to fight more Demons.

Death's Shadow

Main article: Death's Shadow

Kernel played a small role in Death's Shadow, he turned up with Beranabus and Grubbs on the hospital roof when Sharmilla, Bec and Dervish were being attacked. After the battle, he went with some of the Disciples, Beranabus and Bec to hunt down a newly resurrected Juni Swan onboard a zombie infested ocean liner. It was his job to keep open a window to escape; but when the team retreated back towards him he was attacked by a large group of zombies and disappeared after an explosion.

Trivia

• May possibly suffer from alopecia since he mentions being as bald as a baby since birth.

• Kernel is mixed race , he mentions his skin being creamy brown, his mother being pale (white) and him being more his dad's colour.

• In Slawter Shark says "Too bad Kernel and Beranabus aren't here. It would have been a complete reunion."

• In Demon Apocalypse Kernel is blinded by Spine, a scorpion-like demon with a human head. He can grow his eyes back with magic in the Demonata's universe, but they will disintegrate on returning to the human universe, unless he is only in the human world for a short time as show in Death's Shadow. Also, his new eyes appear to show new patches of light that can be seen as shadows floating across his eyes to other people, these new lights are a constant irritation to him and he angrily bats them away at times.

External links

• Introduction of Demon Thief on Author's website
• Demonata website