Kernel Fleck
Encyclopedia
Cornelius "Kernel" Fleck is the protagonist
of Demon Thief
, the second book of the series The Demonata
by Darren Shan
and Dark Calling, the ninth book in the Demonata series. He is one of the three main characters in the series. Kernel is mentioned in Slawter
, and appears in Demon Thief
, Demon Apocalypse, Death's Shadow
, Wolf Island
, Dark Calling
and Hell's Heroes
.
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, Lord Loss appears and 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".
Kernel's parents, disturbed by the coming of Art, moved into a village to start a new life. A year later, an elderly local woman summoned the demon named Cadaver
into the universe of humans, who slaughtered dozens of schoolchildren and stole Art from Kernel. Following the demon back to its own universe, Kernel encounters the magician
Beranabus and his "Disciples", who are pursuing Cadaver in an attempt to find a piece of a magical weapon
called the 'Kah-Gash', which has the power to destroy entire Universes. To try to get back his brother, Kernel joins the Disciples. After a long pursuit they arrive in the realm of Lord Loss again, and it is found that the demon master had ordered Cadaver to steal Art back from Kernel. After another long struggle, within Lord Loss' magical chess
board, Kernel finds that he himself is the "Demon Thief" (i.e. the thief who stole the demon) instead of Cadaver (the Demon who stole). With great difficulty, he chooses to leave "Art" with Lord Loss, and returns home. However, he cannot resume his old life with his parents, and so joins Beranabus in his fight against the demons, becoming the magician's permanent assistant. At the end of this book, the two discover that the piece of the Kah-Gash for which Beranabus is searching is actually Kernel himself.
by a fire
as Beranabus brings in Grubbs
. By now 30 years have passed since Demon Thief, but due to the time differences in the Demonata Universe, Kernel only looks around 16–17 years old. This version of Kernel has grown into a warrior
, seemingly cold and dead; 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 Grubbs' 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. Unknown 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 carcasses. Kernel follows Beranabus off their helicopter and charges through the crowds of Demonata throwing bolts of pink energy at them; however, they block his entrance to the cave in which the tunnel stands. As he tries to fight off the Demonata, he is struck in the eyes by Spine who injects him with flesh-eating maggot
s that cause him to writhe in pain.
Grubbs makes a magical connection to the rocks beneath him, within which Bec's soul
is trapped. 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 sense 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 the Kah-Gash, as only the weapon 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, and 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 discover that Juni is actually a disguised Nadia Moore and another fight entails, Kernel finding himself paired off again with Spine, who tries to dig his stinger into his eye-sockets even more. However, Kernel manages to get the upper hand and wraps Spine around a stalagmite
.
When Juni is killed, they believe that the tunnel is destroyed but it turns out that the key to the tunnel's formation was actually Bill-E; Grubbs deals with Bill-E in the most painless way possible. Lord Loss gloats over the death, but then Bill-E's body is possessed by Bec, and brought back into motion by Grubbs' magic. She destroys Spine and Artery, then disfigures Lord Loss and forces 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.
Kernel plays a small role in Death's Shadow, turning up with Beranabus and Grubbs on the hospital
roof when Sharmilla, Bec and Dervish are being attacked. After the battle, he goes with some of the Disciples, Beranabus and Bec to hunt down a newly resurrected Juni Swan onboard a zombie
infested ocean liner
. It is his job to keep open a window to escape, but when the team retreat back towards him he is attacked by a large group of zombies and disappears after an explosion.
just as the zombie explodes, forcing Kernel back into the window.
The ball of light disguises itself as Art, the child Kernel believed to be his brother, (see Demon Thief
), and reveals itself as one of the Old Creatures. It takes Kernel to the Crux (the point where the two universes meet) and tells him of the original universe: a plane of 64 black and white squares, much like a chessboard, Old Creatures on the blacks, the Demonata on the Whites, separated from each other by the Kah-Gash. Kernel discovers how the universe was split in two, one for the Demonata, one for everything else, through an explosion caused by the Kah-Gash (i.e. the Big Bang). Art dies while evacuating Kernel from the Crux but is replaced on the other side on the window by another Old Creature bearing resemblance to Raz, another key Disciple from Demon Thief.
Raz shows Kernel a world inhabited by two of every species in the human universe. He then presents Kernel with a choice: stay and protect the ark as an immortal, keeping it safe from the Demonata and Death by opening windows to escape, or return to Earth to certain death. Kernel ponders this and decides, drawing on his experience in Demon Thief, to at least try and save the universe and not stay to wonder if he could have made a difference. It is revealed that the three parts of the Kah-Gash play a different part: Kernel acts as the Vision as he can see the lights (which are splintered fragments of the original barriers between the Light and the Dark sections of the old universe), Bec is the memory due perhaps to her photographic memory while Grubbs acts as the Trigger, directing the power of the Kah-Gash to a specific target. Kernel decides that if the attack against Death fails, providing he survives, he will return to the Ark and fulfil his duty. He instructs Raz to wait and returns to earth.
He returns to a battle which he helps to win. He is initially surprised by Grubbs new wolfen appearance but quickly recovers from the shock. While everyone discusses what to do next he is able to make the lights pulse for Beranabus and Bill-E Spleen, suggesting that their souls still exist within Death. First off, Grubbs, Bec and himself test the power of the Kah-Gash with very positive effects. Kernel opens a window to Beranabus, and leads Bec, Dervish, Meera Flame, Kirilli Kovacs, Grubbs and his remaining entourage of werewolves. They enter a dark realm but are able to locate Beranubus and set the remaining souls free, inconveniencing but not destroying Death. Beranabus makes it clear that they have no hope. The Shadow realm disappears and they are plunged into a battle with millions of demons headed by Lord Loss and Juni Swan. Kernel manages to open a window while Meera sacrifices herself to kill Juni Swan and Bec appears to be consorting with Lord Loss. They make their escape and Kernel reveals to Grubbs that he plans to return to the Ark. Grubbs appears to be resigned to this but instead blinds Kernel, preventing him from patching lights together to reach the Old Creature. Kernel is left injured and blind on the floor of the cave at the book's closing.
since he mentions being as bald
since birth. Kernel is also of mixed race; he mentions his skin being creamy brown, his mother being pale (white
) and him being more his dad's colour. his eyes are a bright blue, something unusual for some one with his complexion.
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 slowly disintegrate on returning to the human universe, unless he is only in the human world for a short time as shown 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. It is later revealed that these patches of lights are Old Creatures. (which in Dark Calling take form of Artery (AKA Art) and Raz
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
of Demon Thief
Demon Thief
Demon Thief is a book in Darren Shan's Demonata series. Though it is the second book in the series, it is a prequel to Lord Loss, the first book in the series. The protagonist is also different from that of the first book. The narrator here is a new character called Kernel Fleck, as opposed to...
, the second book of the series The Demonata
The Demonata
The Demonata is a series of books by best selling author Darren Shan. It deals with the world of demons . The series is told by three different protagonists: Grubbs Grady, Kernel Fleck, and Bec MacConn, the latter of which is the first female protagonist in a Darren Shan book...
by Darren Shan
Darren Shan
Darren O'Shaughnessy , who commonly writes under the pen name Darren Shan, is an Irish author. Darren Shan is also the main character in Shan's The Saga of Darren Shan young-adult fiction series. He also wrote The Demonata series as well as the stand-alone books, Koyasan and The Thin Executioner...
and Dark Calling, the ninth book in the Demonata series. He is one of the three main characters in the series. Kernel is mentioned in Slawter
Slawter
Slawter is the third book in the The Demonata series written by Darren Shan. Even though all the Demonata books can be read separately this book follows on from the 1st in the series, Lord Loss and the 2nd in the series, Demon Thief...
, and appears in Demon Thief
Demon Thief
Demon Thief is a book in Darren Shan's Demonata series. Though it is the second book in the series, it is a prequel to Lord Loss, the first book in the series. The protagonist is also different from that of the first book. The narrator here is a new character called Kernel Fleck, as opposed to...
, Demon Apocalypse, Death's Shadow
Death's Shadow (novel)
Death's Shadow is the seventh installment in Darren Shan's The Demonata series. It was released in May 2008 in the UK, and November 2008 in the USA.-Plot:...
, Wolf Island
Wolf Island (novel)
Wolf Island is the eighth installment in Darren Shan's The Demonata series. It was released in Ireland and the UK on September 22, 2008, and in the USA on May 2009. The book is narrated by Grubbs parallel to the events of Death's Shadow....
, Dark Calling
Dark Calling (novel)
Dark Calling is the ninth installment in Darren Shan's Horror/Adventure book series The Demonata.-Plot:Since rebuilding his eyes, Kernel has been able to see new lights that he cannot move, and which seem to be whispering to the Disciples, manipulating them. However Kernel realizes that he is...
and Hell's Heroes
Hell's Heroes (book)
Hell's Heroes is the tenth and final installment in Darren Shan's The Demonata series.- Overview :The book was released in the UK and Ireland on the 1st of October 2009 and in the US on the 1st of May 2010. Darren Shan's personal blog confirmed the title of the book in the December edition of...
.
Early life
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. He even contemplated suicide.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, Lord Loss appears and 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".
Kernel's parents, disturbed by the coming of Art, moved into a village to start a new life. A year later, an elderly local woman summoned the demon named Cadaver
Cadaver (Demonata)
Cadaver is a demon who appears in Darren Shan's The Demonata series. He has appeared in Demon Thief, Death's Shadow, and Slawter.Cadaver is the demon hired by Lord Loss to kidnap Art and bring Kernel Fleck into the Demonata's universe...
into the universe of humans, who slaughtered dozens of schoolchildren and stole Art from Kernel. Following the demon back to its own universe, Kernel encounters the magician
Magician (fantasy)
A magician, mage, sorcerer, sorceress, wizard, enchanter, enchantress, thaumaturge or a person known under one of many other possible terms is someone who uses or practices magic that derives from supernatural or occult sources...
Beranabus and his "Disciples", who are pursuing Cadaver in an attempt to find a piece of a magical weapon
Weapon
A weapon, arm, or armament is a tool or instrument used with the aim of causing damage or harm to living beings or artificial structures or systems...
called the 'Kah-Gash', which has the power to destroy entire Universes. To try to get back his brother, Kernel joins the Disciples. After a long pursuit they arrive in the realm of Lord Loss again, and it is found that the demon master had ordered Cadaver to steal Art back from Kernel. After another long struggle, within Lord Loss' magical chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
board, Kernel finds that he himself is the "Demon Thief" (i.e. the thief who stole the demon) instead of Cadaver (the Demon who stole). With great difficulty, he chooses to leave "Art" with Lord Loss, and returns home. However, he cannot resume his old life with his parents, and so joins Beranabus in his fight against the demons, becoming the magician's permanent assistant. At the end of this book, the two discover that the piece of the Kah-Gash for which Beranabus is searching is actually Kernel himself.
With Beranabus
Kernel is next seen in Demon Apocalypse, sitting in a caveCave
A cave or cavern is a natural underground space large enough for a human to enter. The term applies to natural cavities some part of which is in total darkness. The word cave also includes smaller spaces like rock shelters, sea caves, and grottos.Speleology is the science of exploration and study...
by a fire
Fire
Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material in the chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. Slower oxidative processes like rusting or digestion are not included by this definition....
as Beranabus brings in Grubbs
Grubbs Grady
Grubitsch "Grubbs" Grady is one of the main character in The Demonata series by Darren Shan. He is the protagonist of the first book , the third , the fifth the sixth , the eighth and the tenth...
. By now 30 years have passed since Demon Thief, but due to the time differences in the Demonata Universe, Kernel only looks around 16–17 years old. This version of Kernel has grown into a warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
, seemingly cold and dead; 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 Grubbs' 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. Unknown 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 carcasses. Kernel follows Beranabus off their helicopter and charges through the crowds of Demonata throwing bolts of pink energy at them; however, they block his entrance to the cave in which the tunnel stands. As he tries to fight off the Demonata, he is struck in the eyes by Spine who injects him with flesh-eating maggot
Maggot
In everyday speech the word maggot means the larva of a fly ; it is applied in particular to the larvae of Brachyceran flies, such as houseflies, cheese flies, and blowflies, rather than larvae of the Nematocera, such as mosquitoes and Crane flies...
s that cause him to writhe in pain.
Grubbs makes a magical connection to the rocks beneath him, within which Bec's soul
Soul
A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...
is trapped. 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 sense 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 the Kah-Gash, as only the weapon 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, and 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 discover that Juni is actually a disguised Nadia Moore and another fight entails, Kernel finding himself paired off again with Spine, who tries to dig his stinger into his eye-sockets even more. However, Kernel manages to get the upper hand and wraps Spine around a stalagmite
Stalagmite
A stalagmite is a type of speleothem that rises from the floor of a limestone cave due to the dripping of mineralized solutions and the deposition of calcium carbonate. This stalagmite formation occurs only under certain pH conditions within the underground cavern. The corresponding formation on...
.
When Juni is killed, they believe that the tunnel is destroyed but it turns out that the key to the tunnel's formation was actually Bill-E; Grubbs deals with Bill-E in the most painless way possible. Lord Loss gloats over the death, but then Bill-E's body is possessed by Bec, and brought back into motion by Grubbs' magic. She destroys Spine and Artery, then disfigures Lord Loss and forces 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.
Kernel plays a small role in Death's Shadow, turning up with Beranabus and Grubbs on the hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....
roof when Sharmilla, Bec and Dervish are being attacked. After the battle, he goes with some of the Disciples, Beranabus and Bec to hunt down a newly resurrected Juni Swan onboard a zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
infested ocean liner
Ocean liner
An ocean liner is a ship designed to transport people from one seaport to another along regular long-distance maritime routes according to a schedule. Liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes .Cargo vessels running to a schedule are sometimes referred to as...
. It is his job to keep open a window to escape, but when the team retreat back towards him he is attacked by a large group of zombies and disappears after an explosion.
Dark Calling
It is revealed in the beginning of Dark Calling that Kernel is becoming increasingly aware that the "new lights" he is seeing with his reformed eyes, do not react to him. However they do whisper to him. They seem to be exerting some form of control over him, possibly through a spell, which prevents him from telling anyone about the whispers, or objecting to opinions that could lead to a trap. The most notable of this is when he spots Juni Swann on a cruise liner, sees it as a trap, but can do nothing from preventing his associates from going there anyway. Once there he is left on the top deck, keeping the window to the demon oasis open. He is shocked to see the "new lights" form into a sold ball of light which changes the colour of the window and tells him to follow it into the window. Not wanting to abandon his friends, he refuses, but then the dead onboard the liner rise and begin to attack. Kernel forms a magical shield to keep them out, but the ball of light possesses one of the zombies, breaks through the barrer and begins to wrestle with Kernel. It is at this point that we see the parallels between Dark Calling and Death's Shadow, when Bec emerges from the hullHull (watercraft)
A hull is the watertight body of a ship or boat. Above the hull is the superstructure and/or deckhouse, where present. The line where the hull meets the water surface is called the waterline.The structure of the hull varies depending on the vessel type...
just as the zombie explodes, forcing Kernel back into the window.
The ball of light disguises itself as Art, the child Kernel believed to be his brother, (see Demon Thief
Demon Thief
Demon Thief is a book in Darren Shan's Demonata series. Though it is the second book in the series, it is a prequel to Lord Loss, the first book in the series. The protagonist is also different from that of the first book. The narrator here is a new character called Kernel Fleck, as opposed to...
), and reveals itself as one of the Old Creatures. It takes Kernel to the Crux (the point where the two universes meet) and tells him of the original universe: a plane of 64 black and white squares, much like a chessboard, Old Creatures on the blacks, the Demonata on the Whites, separated from each other by the Kah-Gash. Kernel discovers how the universe was split in two, one for the Demonata, one for everything else, through an explosion caused by the Kah-Gash (i.e. the Big Bang). Art dies while evacuating Kernel from the Crux but is replaced on the other side on the window by another Old Creature bearing resemblance to Raz, another key Disciple from Demon Thief.
Raz shows Kernel a world inhabited by two of every species in the human universe. He then presents Kernel with a choice: stay and protect the ark as an immortal, keeping it safe from the Demonata and Death by opening windows to escape, or return to Earth to certain death. Kernel ponders this and decides, drawing on his experience in Demon Thief, to at least try and save the universe and not stay to wonder if he could have made a difference. It is revealed that the three parts of the Kah-Gash play a different part: Kernel acts as the Vision as he can see the lights (which are splintered fragments of the original barriers between the Light and the Dark sections of the old universe), Bec is the memory due perhaps to her photographic memory while Grubbs acts as the Trigger, directing the power of the Kah-Gash to a specific target. Kernel decides that if the attack against Death fails, providing he survives, he will return to the Ark and fulfil his duty. He instructs Raz to wait and returns to earth.
He returns to a battle which he helps to win. He is initially surprised by Grubbs new wolfen appearance but quickly recovers from the shock. While everyone discusses what to do next he is able to make the lights pulse for Beranabus and Bill-E Spleen, suggesting that their souls still exist within Death. First off, Grubbs, Bec and himself test the power of the Kah-Gash with very positive effects. Kernel opens a window to Beranabus, and leads Bec, Dervish, Meera Flame, Kirilli Kovacs, Grubbs and his remaining entourage of werewolves. They enter a dark realm but are able to locate Beranubus and set the remaining souls free, inconveniencing but not destroying Death. Beranabus makes it clear that they have no hope. The Shadow realm disappears and they are plunged into a battle with millions of demons headed by Lord Loss and Juni Swan. Kernel manages to open a window while Meera sacrifices herself to kill Juni Swan and Bec appears to be consorting with Lord Loss. They make their escape and Kernel reveals to Grubbs that he plans to return to the Ark. Grubbs appears to be resigned to this but instead blinds Kernel, preventing him from patching lights together to reach the Old Creature. Kernel is left injured and blind on the floor of the cave at the book's closing.
Hell's Heroes
Kernel is revealed at the opening of Hell's Heroes to be furious at Grubbs for blinding him (understandably) and addresses him with sarcastic comments and quips about his blindness and Grubbs's violent streak. Kernel is desperate to be free from the tyranny of the now wolven Grubbs, wishing to return to the Ark as he now sees the fight against Death futile and needless. He follows Grubbs to Carcery Vale and is very pleased when Shark convinces Grubbs to attempt to reach Bec. However he is convinced that Bec has turned her back on the fate of the humans and has thrown her lot in with Lord Loss. He regains his sight in the demon universe and it is assumed that he does not lose it again. He returns to the Old Creature/Raz Warlo and is devastated when his hope of saving the Universe as the Sight of the Kah-Gash is snatched from him by Death-Bec. He fights with insane passion when he realizes the fight is pointless. He works well with Grubbs at this stage, all contempt for the blinding inicdent put behind him as they face their mutual enemy. He is willing to put the power of the Kah-Gash in Grubbs hands if he feel it will help. It is Kernel that picks up on Bec's plan when it is placed in front of him. As the Sight of the Kah-Gash it can be presumed that Kernel is in charge of finding the places in the universe that need rebuilding.Physical characteristics
It has been hinted that Kernel may possibly suffer from alopeciaAlopecia
Alopecia means loss of hair from the head or body. Alopecia can mean baldness, a term generally reserved for pattern alopecia or androgenic alopecia. Compulsive pulling of hair can also produce hair loss. Hairstyling routines such as tight ponytails or braids may induce Traction alopecia. Both...
since he mentions being as bald
Baldness
Baldness implies partial or complete lack of hair and can be understood as part of the wider topic of "hair thinning". The degree and pattern of baldness can vary greatly, but its most common cause is male and female pattern baldness, also known as androgenic alopecia, alopecia androgenetica or...
since birth. Kernel is also of mixed race; he mentions his skin being creamy brown, his mother being pale (white
White people
White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...
) and him being more his dad's colour. his eyes are a bright blue, something unusual for some one with his complexion.
In Demon Apocalypse Kernel is blinded by Spine, a scorpion
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arthropod animals of the order Scorpiones within the class Arachnida. They have eight legs and are easily recognized by the pair of grasping claws and the narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back, ending with a venomous stinger...
-like demon with a human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
head
Head
In anatomy, the head of an animal is the rostral part that usually comprises the brain, eyes, ears, nose and mouth . Some very simple animals may not have a head, but many bilaterally symmetric forms do....
. He can grow his eyes back with magic in the Demonata's universe, but they slowly disintegrate on returning to the human universe, unless he is only in the human world for a short time as shown 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. It is later revealed that these patches of lights are Old Creatures. (which in Dark Calling take form of Artery (AKA Art) and Raz
Powers and abilities
Kernel has the power to heal wounds just like Grubbs. He also has an ability that neither Bec or Grubbs has: he can open windows very quickly to the demon worlds, without the use of spells. This is done by thinking about a certain place, person or thing in the Demonata universe, which causes specific lights to pulse; he is then able to connect these pulsing lights to form a window leading to the location etc. in question. His powers have grown considerably since his first appearance, as mentioned in Death's Shadow; he can keep tabs on a person and sense which universe that person is in, open windows even in places without magic (e.g. Earth) and search for several people at the same time. He connects the patches of light that he sees when they are pulsing to make the windows. He also has the ability to change the appearances of certain things. When he stole Artery, he used magic to give the demon human features, thus transforming him into the apparently human infant which came to be called 'Art'.Appearances
- Demon ThiefDemon ThiefDemon Thief is a book in Darren Shan's Demonata series. Though it is the second book in the series, it is a prequel to Lord Loss, the first book in the series. The protagonist is also different from that of the first book. The narrator here is a new character called Kernel Fleck, as opposed to...
- Demon Apocalypse
- Death's ShadowDeath's Shadow (novel)Death's Shadow is the seventh installment in Darren Shan's The Demonata series. It was released in May 2008 in the UK, and November 2008 in the USA.-Plot:...
- Wolf IslandWolf IslandWolf Island or Wenman Island is a small island in the Galapagos Islands and was named after the German geologist Theodor Wolf, who also has the volcano Wolf on Isabela Island named after him...
- Dark Calling
- Hell's Heroes (book)Hell's Heroes (book)Hell's Heroes is the tenth and final installment in Darren Shan's The Demonata series.- Overview :The book was released in the UK and Ireland on the 1st of October 2009 and in the US on the 1st of May 2010. Darren Shan's personal blog confirmed the title of the book in the December edition of...