“My circuits . . . you’re insane!” Virtua said, just before a stray bullet tore through Projo, her image-caster. Virtua blinked out of sight, and Projo fell to the ground with a clank.
“Virtua!” Jazen shouted.
The broken image-caster rolled across the square and came to rest at Jack’s feet. “Projo,” he said, picking up the feisty little orb whose job it was to carry Virtua’s image to the unplugged world. Jack wasn’t getting any kind of reading from him. He looked up at Jazen and the others. “He’s gone.”
Roka ran into the safe zone behind Blue, Jazen, and Allegra with his hands up held in a duck-and-cover position. “What is going on here?” he shouted. “Has everybody lost their minds?”
“No, just the smartest man in the world,” Jazen said.
Roka looked around. “This is just a thought, but how ’bout we get out of here?”
Jack fired away at Smart’s soldiers. The square was too congested to make a break for it. “We’ll never get through this crowd.”
“Roka, you’re up,” Jazen said. “We’ll cover Jack. You find us a way out.”
Roka leaned forward, touching both hands to his own chest. “Why me?”
“You’re not bulletproof. We are. Jack needs all the bullet-proof people right here in front of him.” Jazen winced as another laser blast meant for Jack hit him in the back, effectively making his point. “Besides, you’ve got a job to finish. If Jack doesn’t get out of here alive, you don’t get your pardon. You’re not off the hook yet, you know.”
Roka gave Jazen a dirty look. “That’s how it is, huh?” He nodded slowly and scanned the square for a few seconds. The plaza was a study in the madness of crowds. People were in hysterics, jamming the exits and colliding. Roka drew a blaster from his hip holster, slapped a fresh cartridge of ammo into its handle, and ran out into the
frenzy without another word. Jack wondered if he planned on coming back. He laid down cover fire for Roka as he went bobbing and weaving through the mob, ducking laser blasts all around.
Roka disappeared into the crowd and was out of sight for only a few seconds when a horde of medieval warriors charged out from the teeming masses. “Incoming!” Blue shouted as an antiquated battalion of archers, knights, and other chain-mail-clad fighters rushed forward. The people of Varagog Village were joining the fight, and they weren’t rushing to Jack’s aid.
Chi pulled his fist out from the chest of another fallen WarHawk and turned to face the Varagog attackers. He kicked a pair of Smart’s drones out of his way and went to work redirecting the laser blasts that filled the air all around him. He cut across the square, karate chopping through the laserfire and reflecting the shots over toward Hovarth’s people, disarming them with frightening grace and precision. Jack ducked down below Allegra’s shield-shaped body as a volley of arrows rained down on him. He switched his gun’s setting to stun and picked up where he left off, firing at the angry mob from Varagog as well as the WarHawks.
Stendeval appeared beside the lord of Clan Varren. “Hovarth! What are you doing standing by? Control your people!”
“They are under control,” Hovarth told Stendeval. “They’re following my orders.”
“Hovarth . . .” Stendeval shook his head. “This helps no one.” He used his powers to try and disarm Hovarth’s men before they hurt anyone, but there were so many of them. Hero Square was in a state of pure anarchy. The combined forces of the WarHawks and Varagog Villagers overran Jack and his friends. Jack ran out of ammo, and used his laser rifle to bash in the face a large, smelly man who came at him with a mace. He was busy looking for another target when Skerren flew in and sliced his gun in two.
Jack backpedaled as Skerren pressed forward, swinging away with his two unbreakable swords. One of Skerren’s blades cut through his shirt and grated against the glowing power core in his chest, producing sparks that skittered out across the marble flagstones of Hero Square. Jack fell backward and landed on his side. He threw both halves of his now useless weapon up at Skerren, missing wildly with the first but nailing him in the forehead with the second.
That only made Skerren mad. He raised his sword high in the air and took a step toward Jack but fell backward instead when a pair of liquid metal hands grabbed him by the ankles and pulled his legs out from under him. Skerren scrambled to his feet to find Allegra standing in between him and Jack. “Step aside, Allegra,” he warned.
“Skerren, no,” she said, holding out her hand like a crossing guard. “You’re not going to cut through me to get to Jack, and we both know it, so just stop.”
Skerren held one sword at his side and pointed the other at Allegra. “You want to bet your life on that? In Varagog, those who side with traitors are sentenced to share their fate.”
“You couldn’t hurt me even if you wanted to,” Allegra said. “I’m unbreakable.”
Skerren scraped his swords together. “And my swords can cut through anything. Maybe it’s time you and I had a rematch.”
Jack didn’t like where this was headed. Allegra’s liquid metal body was about as strong as taffy when she was scared, but it was downright invincible when she wasn’t. On the other hand, Skerren could cut through anything
with his swords as long as his heart was in it. They had clashed once before and Allegra came out victorious. Jack didn’t want to find out whose will was stronger at the moment.
“Skerren, we don’t have time to fight each other,” Jack said, trying to reason with his former friend. “The Rüstov are coming. We need to get ready, and you need my help to defeat them.”
Skerren scoffed at Jack’s claims. “Don’t even try that with me. You’re more one of them now than you are one of us . . . if you ever
were
one of us. I won’t be fooled by you again.”
“Skerren, he stopped the Rüstov’s spyware virus,” Allegra said. “You saw him do it. We did it together!”
“So
you
say,” Skerren shot back. “How do I know if he left any codes hidden in those machines?” He pointed a sword at Jack. “We don’t trust
any
machines in Varagog, and you’re as much a machine as you are a person now. Even if we did trust you, we couldn’t let you in on our plans. The son of the Magus hears every word you say.” Skerren spun his swords around and held them out in attack positions. “No more!” He ran at Jack and Allegra.
Allegra morphed one arm into a shield and the other into a sword to match Skerren’s, but before the two clashed, a throng of WarHawks and Varagog knights forced Jazen and Blue back into both of them. The swarm of combatants all collided with one another, and Jack went flying down a flight of marble steps, taking several Varagoggers with him in a tangled mess of bodies.
When Jack got up, he felt no great pain beyond a few new bumps and bruises. That was especially odd, because a large knife had been plunged into his chest during the fall.
Jack breathed in a huge gulp of air, nearly choking at the sight of his wound. He tugged at his already ripped shirt to find that the blade had been stabbed deep into the mechanical implant in his sternum. Black oil spurted out around the hilt of the dagger, right next to the glowing Rüstov power core in his chest. Jack shut his eyes tight and quickly pulled out the knife before he lost his nerve. The cybernetic implant, which had been damaged by the blade, instantly began to repair itself.
“It’s working,” Khalix said. “Jack! The Revile process . . . it’s working! Stop fighting it. Join us. Join me, and these people will never be able to hurt you again.”
As Jack listened to Khalix’s voice in his head, he began to worry that Skerren might have had a point after all. Maybe he really was becoming more Rüstov than human. The machinery in Jack’s chest was foreign and unfriendly. He had never seen its like before. He didn’t understand it and it wasn’t talking to him. Jack felt at the groove Skerren’s sword had carved into the thick red glass that covered his power core. Unlike the damage to the core’s metal casing, the cut in the glass didn’t heal itself. Jack was busy wondering why as the WarHawks came galloping down the staircase to kill him. He noticed them a second too late, but just before they got to him, a glowing Chinese dragon flew over Jack’s head. Its rider grabbed him by the collar.
Solomon Roka pulled Jack up and slid back on the dragon’s saddle to make room for him. “Hey, Jack. How’s this for a way out?”
Jack held on tight and looked over both shoulders as his former School of Thought classmates Zhi and Trea flew past him on four more of the mystical Chinese dragons that Zhi controlled. Trea had used her powers to split into three separate versions of herself and was riding three
of Zhi’s dragons. Lorem Ipsum, the talented and dangerous “daughter” of Jonas Smart, flew up alongside him, riding a fifth.
“So, Jack. How’s your first day back going?” Lorem asked Jack.
Jack smirked as Trea and Zhi circled back, whipping their dragons’ tails into Smart’s battle droids and clearing the area for the moment. “Where the heck have you guys been?” he shouted.
Zhi intentionally bumped Jack’s dragon. “You’re welcome.”
“Can we get out of here, please?” Roka asked. “This is the worst homecoming parade I’ve ever seen.”
Jack shrugged. “Oblivia did warn us.”
“Don’t even get me started on her,” Roka grunted. He pointed to a squad of airborne WarHawks riding jet packs and armed flight pods. “Let’s go. Now.”
“We have to get the others,” Jack said. He took the reins and brought the dragon down and around, turning fast enough to leave skid marks in the air. He hugged the ground, flying underneath the fast-approaching WarHawks, and charged back up to the top of the staircase
he’d just fallen down. As soon as he reached the landing, he turned hard once again, causing the dragon’s tail to fly out and sideswipe a row of WarHawks and Varagog warriors. “Climb on!” he yelled to Jazen, Blue, and Allegra.
Jazen and Blue made a break for the dragon. They would have easily made it, but Hovarth came out of nowhere. He lowered his shoulder and barreled into them, knocking them both to the ground. Hovarth’s men got back up and swarmed Jazen and Blue. Only Allegra got through the mob, shifting to her most liquid state to slip in between her attackers. She stretched out her arm and wrapped it around the dragon’s tail. Roka pulled her in, but Jazen and Blue were lost in the grip of Hovarth’s men.
“Go!” Jazen yelled to Jack. “You’re the one they want, just go!” Jack hesitated, and Jazen nearly lost it. “NOW!” he shouted.
Jack nodded and kicked his heels into the dragon’s sides. He became a brilliant blur as he flew away, with Zhi, Trea, and Lorem following close behind.
The Getaway
Jack broke away from the pack, following the natural instinct to fly up and away as fast as he could. He drove his dragon high into the air. A hundred arrows and five times as many laser blasts chased him into the sky.
“Incoming!” Roka shouted in Jack’s ear. There was no cover up above the square. Jack was completely exposed. He turned the dragon on its side to avoid getting hit, but he was only able to protect himself, Allegra, and Roka. The dragon roared as a dozen arrows lodged into its belly and its scaly armor was riddled with bullets. The mythical
beast spiraled back down toward Hero Square in a nosedive. Jack pulled up in time to soften the blow, but they still hit the ground hard and skidded into the center of the plaza. Jack and his friends were thrown off in the crash. The dragon kept going and slammed into a speeding HoverCar before it finally ground to a halt.
“Is everyone okay?” Jack asked, getting up and dusting himself off.
“No,” Roka said. “I gave you the reins because I thought you knew how to fly. What the heck was that?”
“Sorry, I’m better with machines.”
“Guys!” Allegra shouted. She was pointing at the dragon. “She’s hurt bad.”
“No,” Jack said, running up to the wounded creature. It was his carelessness that had gotten it shot out of the sky. Jack reached out to touch the dragon’s head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think . . . I . . .” The dragon looked at Jack and let out an agonized groan. It laid its giant head against the marble flagstones and dissipated into luminescent vapors.
Jack drew back his hand as Trea and Lorem circled overhead. “Hang on,” Trea shouted. “We’re coming down!”
Roka shook his head, waving the glittery smoke away.
“I’ve got a better idea. Let’s play to our strengths.” Roka directed Jack’s attention to the HoverCar that Zhi’s dragon had crashed into. “What do you think, Jack? This thing gonna run, or is it too banged up?”
Jack coughed on the hazy remains of Zhi’s dragon. Roka’s words had yet to register with him. “I got that dragon killed. . . . It only took a minute.”
Allegra morphed into a wall to guard against the WarHawks and Varagog Villagers as they charged across the square. Arrows and laser blasts pinged off her body. There wasn’t much time. Roka took Jack by the chin and turned his head back toward the car. “Jack, focus. What do you see?”
Jack blinked a few times and looked at the HoverCar. He used his powers to scan its systems. “It’s a WhisperCraft 3000. Top-of-the-line model with hover and flight modes, bulletproof exteriors, and a hybrid warp engine under the hood.” Jack nodded. “She’ll run.”
Roka made a clicking sound with his mouth. “I even like the color. C’mon.”
The trio ran to the HoverCar and found a woozy Clarkston Noteworthy sitting in the driver’s seat.
“You look familiar,” said Roka. “Have we met?”
Noteworthy squinted at Roka. “What?”
“Never mind. Out you go.” Roka opened up the driver’s-side door and pushed Noteworthy out. He ushered Jack into the driver’s seat and hopped in next to him. Allegra poured herself into the backseat.
“Hit it,” Roka told Jack. He gunned the engine and sped away.
Jack blazed across Hero Square, swerving wildly to avoid people, statues, fountains, and Romanesque columns. The stone archway exits at the edges of the square were all packed with people and being sealed off. With no other way out, Jack turned away from the exits and went straight for the classical, museum-like buildings that lined the perimeter of the plaza. “Hang on,” he told his passengers.