“Imagination looks forward!” Stendeval told the assembled masses. “Imagination creates. Imagination dares. Here we look forward to a future filled with promise, not fear. Here we look to a world where anything is possible. That is the world Legend died to save!”
Thousands upon thousands of people in Hero Square raised their voices in agreement.
“That is the world we wish to live in, yes?” Stendeval asked.
The whole of Empire City answered with a resounding “YES!”
Stendeval nodded. “Then with your permission, I humbly submit that from this day forward, Dedication Day be known as Rededication Day! Here we do not merely dedicate this city to memories of our fallen comrades, but we rededicate ourselves! To everything they stood for! To the impossible! To the future! To the unbound wonder of the Imagine Nation!”
The Inner Circle applauded vigorously except for Smart, who looked like someone had just told him the stock market had crashed. The crowd, however, roared a deafening approval.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” Stendeval said to his fellow Circlemen. “Chi? Will you do the honors?”
Chi nodded. “With pleasure,” he said.
Chi broke ranks with the Circle and leaped into the air, landing a few feet before the stone bridge leading out to the Legendary Flame. At the threshold of the bridge stood a marble headstone. Jack could see the words DEDICATED JANUARY 25, 1998 engraved on the face of it. The words were glowing with a brilliant blue light.
As Chi’s feet hit the bridge, he rolled his landing toward the headstone and sprung up to punch it. The headstone exploded with a furious blast of energy. A million tiny pieces of marble flew into the air, then froze in place as Stendeval raised a fist, stopping each stone from continuing along its trajectory.
There was a glowing ball of blue energy at the center of the debris. Chi reached out and took some of the blue energy into his hand. He channeled it into a fireball and threw it at the statue of Legend, showing the tiniest sign of strain on his face.
The fireball landed in the palm of the statue’s hand, raising the flicker of blue flame into a mighty bonfire. The cheering grew louder. Stendeval opened his own hand and the pieces of the headstone were all sucked back toward the center, joining together once again, reforming with a new message: REDEDICATED JANUARY 25, 2010.
The crowd rejoiced. A new tradition was born. They could all feel it. It was a tradition that would honor the past as well as the future—where the people of Empire City had come from, as well as where they were going.
Stendeval smiled down at Jack, who was blown away by what he’d just seen. From his robes, Stendeval withdrew a small orange envelope. He turned it over in his hand and it vanished. No flashing lights, no fanfare about it. It was a magician’s sleight of hand, nothing more. Or was it?
Jack felt something in his pocket, and reached inside to find the very same envelope. Jack looked back up and Stendeval was gone. He tore into the envelope and read the note.
SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
Orientation
WHERE:
The Cloud Cliffs of Mount Nevertop
WHEN:
Right now
Before he had time to wonder what it meant, Jack was blinded by a flash of orange light and transported away from Hero Square.
Jack’s first day of school was about to begin.
* * *
Jack found himself planted firmly in a tunnel that was carved into the side of a mountain that he guessed was Mount Nevertop. He felt woozy. His vision was fuzzy, the room spun around him, and he could hardly stand. Jack stumbled forward and collapsed to all fours like his legs were made of rubber.
“Teleportation,” Chi explained, patting his shoulder. “Most people throw up the first time.” Jack shook his head, grateful for once that he wasn’t like “most people.”
Mount Nevertop was the name given to the crystal mountain that floated behind the Imagine Nation. Jack decided the mountain had the perfect name—it had such a sharp peak that to try and stand on the summit would have been like trying to stand on the tip of a knife. Up close, Jack saw that the mountain had a cloudy, semiclear coloring. It looked like it was made out of quartz or some other mineral. Jack saw that he was in a great hall, at the bottom of a grand staircase that had been carved into the crystal with steady, professional hands. Excavating this tunnel either took years and years or some pretty impressive superpowers.
The Inner Circle was there, as were two children Jack recognized from the VIP area at Hero Square. Realizing that he was the only one still on the ground, Jack scurried to his feet. The silver girl shied away from him, stepping back behind a crystalline pillar. At least she managed to keep herself in one piece this time. The young boy, Skerren, drew his swords again, planning to see that Jack did not.
“You again! What’s this Rüstov doing here?” Skerren demanded.
“Sheathe your swords, Skerren,” Stendeval commanded. “Jack is a candidate for our program, just as you are. Allegra, come out from there,” Stendeval told the girl in soothing tones.
“Is he the infected boy?” the girl asked.
“It’s perfectly safe, I assure you.”
The silver girl peeked out from behind the pillar. “Do you promise?” Her shiny silver skin was just like Prime’s. Jack wondered if she was a Valorian too.
“Everything I say is a promise—always,” Stendeval replied. “Please, come.”
“What is this?” Skerren asked. “How can he be a candidate for the School of Thought? He just got here, and he’s a Rüstov to boot!” He seemed appalled at the notion. “Is this really true?” he asked Hovarth.
“Aye lad, I’m afraid so,” Hovarth answered.
“Don’t worry,” Jack said to Skerren, trying to put him at ease. “I’m stronger than the Rüstov. My powers beat the infection.” He reached out to shake Skerren’s hand. “My name’s Jack. Jack Blank.”
“I don’t care what your name is, Rusty,” Skerren said. He looked at Jack’s hand like it was covered with the plague. “And I don’t shake hands with the enemy either.” Skerren scraped his twin blades together. “Back up now and you can keep your hand. Linger too long and I’ll chop it off.”
Skerren spun his swords in front of Jack’s face before sinking each weapon into the scabbards on his back. Jack recoiled. If someone had called him “Rusty” yesterday he wouldn’t have given it a second thought. Today the word hit him like a racial slur. Jack’s lips turned downward with an offended grimace as Skerren turned away. Jack had to admit the kid was a phenom with those swords. Too bad his personality was every bit as pointed as his blades.
“Nice guy, huh?” Jack said to Allegra, who was tiptoeing her way out into the open.
“Eeep!” she yelped, and liquefied into a puddle again. She spilled across the floor and reformulated behind Prime, who tried and failed to repress an embarrassed sigh.
“Oh-kaay…,” Jack said. It was clear he was going to have trouble making friends at school. What else was new?
“Children!” Stendeval called out from the steps. “Come. We have a great many stairs to climb before we reach the Cloud Cliffs.”
That was the understatement of the year. Jack looked up the full length of the staircase, which seemed to rise all the way up to the top of the mountain. It was going to be a long climb.
As Jack ascended the stairway with the others, they passed countless sculptures of battles between the Imagine Nation’s most renowned heroes and their infamous archenemies. These epic clashes between good and evil were so well known that no one bothered to put plaques on them to identify the combatants. Despite his vast comic collection, Jack had no idea who many of them were, so Stendeval and the others rattled off the names of each one they passed.
There were so many that Jack couldn’t keep track of them all. He did remember the carving of Veritas, one of Hovarth’s ancestors, fighting Loki, the evil Norse god of mischief. There was also Iditarod Kane, the dauntless arctic adventurer, who was dep
icted rescuing a winter princess from the Ice Trolls of Siberia, and even Prime, sculpted in mortal combat with the dreaded Draconian emperor. Prime modestly downplayed the incident as no big deal. Jack found that hard to believe.
While the history of heroes and villains was all very interesting, Jack’s ears really perked up when his future teachers started talking about the School of Thought.
The School of Thought didn’t meet in a single building; instead, the world was its classroom. Jack’s classes could be held anywhere: the Great Wall of China, Mount Everest, Atlantis, and even outer space.
“You are not students in the School of Thought yet,” Smart told the children. “First, you all have to survive the time of testing.”
Smart and the others went on to explain that over the next two weeks, Jack, Skerren, and Allegra would all be tested and observed by each member of the Inner Circle during the School of Thought’s version of an entrance exam. Before going out into the world to learn, each of the candidates would have to earn the vote of each Circleman in a series of tests to be conducted within Empire City. Smart made a special point of noting that if even one Circleman failed Jack, he’d be out of the program.
Jack groaned. Just when he thought things were looking up. How the heck was he going to get Smart not to fail him… or worse? The Inner Circle said the testing would be dangerous. Hovarth stated that if they were to live, they would prove themselves worthy as the mightiest of their age. That was the whole point. In the School of Thought the most powerful supers of the last generation teach the most powerful children of the next.
The Inner Circle took an interest in Jack and the others because they were the future. As Prime put it, these children might find themselves occupying a seat in the Inner Circle one day, and there was more to being a hero than learning how to fly straight. Hovarth agreed heartily, and spoke with passion about dedication, resolve, and strength. Chi emphasized philosophy and a strict moral code. Virtua stressed ways of thinking about the world that are accepting and compassionate to all, while Prime preached confidence and courage. Smart offered no words of wisdom, but Stendeval summed things up nicely. “Heroes view the future as full of possibility and opportunity,” he said. “They see the good in the world. They believe that nothing is impossible and every day is a chance to change the world for the better. ‘Never underestimate the power you have over what happens today. And never forget the power today has over tomorrow.’ A great hero once told me that.”
Jack and the others reached the top of the stairs. There Stendeval led the group through a hall so filled with clouds, Jack could barely see the floor. He walked toward a ledge that opened out into the sky, where crystal fragments from the mountain floated among puffy white billows.
“Change begins with the individual,” Stendeval stated. “For all the power you have—and you three do have great power—what you need to find first is the power to believe in yourself. It’s one thing to say it. It is another to live it.”
Stendeval walked out onto the crystal shard cliffs that were suspended in the sky outside. “Who among you will join me here on the Cloud Cliffs?” he asked. No one moved. Jack and the others were perfectly happy to stay right where they were.
Stendeval laughed. “This is what I am talking about. You must remove the word ‘can’t’ from your vocabulary. You’ll find that you are more powerful than you realize.”
With a wave of Stendeval’s hands, the clouds in the hall cleared to reveal that Jack and the others were already standing on floating cliffs. What they thought was a solid floor was just more crystal fragments over a tremendous chasm! Jack’s eyes bugged out from their sockets, and he staggered as he looked down into the heart of the mountain. He’d been stepping from stone to stone without a care, never guessing there was a five-thousand-foot drop below him. Allegra screamed, just barely stopping herself from liquefying. If she had, she would have run off the edge and straight through to the bottom. Skerren stabbed a sword into the center of the shard he was standing on, just so he’d have something to hold on to.
“You think you cannot do this, but I say you have already done it!” Stendeval called out. “I ask you, if you had known the road ahead, would you have walked the same path?”
The answer from everyone involved was, of course, no.
Stendeval smiled. “But now you know you can. You can do more than you know. You are here to learn about the world, to gain new perspectives. Testing will be dangerous, but I believe in you. You are already stronger than you think, and you will become stronger still if you open your minds to all possibilities before you. I only ask that you always remember that the path you choose to follow is your own.”
Stendeval’s words hit Jack like beams of sunlight. After a lifetime of people telling him that they knew what was best for him and what his future was going to be, it was wonderful to hear someone say that it was really all up to him. He didn’t have to be a toilet brush cleaner if he didn’t want to be. It was almost enough to make him walk out there and join Stendeval on the Cloud Cliffs. Almost.
Luckily, Stendeval was as good as his word, allowing everyone to choose the path they wanted to walk. Prime flew, Virtua hovered, and Chi flipped from stone to stone. Stendeval used his powers, which Jack still didn’t quite understand, to levitate everyone else, including Hovarth and Smart, back to the staircase. Stendeval didn’t fail anyone for refusing to walk in the clouds. This was just a lesson, not a test. True testing wouldn’t begin until tomorrow.
They were about halfway down when Jack paused to take in one of the sculptures he hadn’t noticed on the way up. “Hey… hey, I know that one!” Jack said.
Skerren, who wasn’t getting any friendlier, rolled his eyes and blew a sharp hiss through his teeth. “That’s Legend,” he said. “Everybody knows that one.”
Jack frowned. He was already sick of this kid. “I know it’s Legend,” he said. “I’m talking about the Rüstov he’s fighting. That’s the one who came after me.”
The entire group stopped short. “What?” Smart asked. “What did you just say?”
“Impossible,” Hovarth said, not even waiting for Jack to answer. “It’s impossible!”
“Look again, Jack,” Virtua said, suddenly very concerned. “Perhaps you’re mistaken?”
“No,” Jack said, confused. “That’s the one who came after me. I’m sure.”
“He’s lying,” Skerren said. “He’s just trying to scare us.”
“Scare you? What are you talking about? I’m telling the truth.” Jack was surprised at the disbelief everyone seemed to share. He expected that back at St. Barnaby’s but not here. “What’s wrong?” Jack asked. “I’m telling you, this thing came after me and I blew it up. I recognize the red light in its chest.”
Another gasp.
“There was only one Rüstov with that mark,” Prime said with a concerned look.
“Impossible!” Hovarth said again, louder this time.
“Didn’t you all just say nothing was impossible?” Jack asked.
“A fair point, young Jack,” Stendeval agreed. “The only thing I find impossible is the concept of impossibility.”
“Yes, but this…,” Smart said, “this is impossible.”
“Why?” Jack asked. “Why is that so crazy?! That’s the robot who came after me yesterday. He tried to kill me. Why is everybody acting so weird about it?”
Stendeval knelt down and looked at Jack. “The figure that Legend is fighting in that sculpture is quite famous. He’s the most deadly Rüstov ever encountered, and one that everyone here hoped never to see again.”
Stendeval put a hand on Jack’s shoulder.
“His name is Revile.”
CHAPTER
8
Powers
The next morning, the story was all over the Empirical, Hightown’s local paper: BOY RÜSTOV THREATENS INNER CIRCLE: “REVILE IS BACK FROM THE DEAD!” The editorial slant didn’t surprise Jack too much. In small letters below the Empirical’s mast
head were the words POWERED BY SMARTCORP.
Jack wanted to tear the Empirical in two, but it was printed on SmartPaper. You couldn’t tear up SmartPaper, you could only delete it, and that wasn’t anywhere near as satisfying. Jack found that reading a tangital newspaper was like holding the home page of a news website. There were no pages to turn—it was just one sheet of digital paper programmed to run the news all day. Jack could touch the section tabs to jump to any part of the paper he wanted, or tap specific headlines to load the stories he wished to read in the paper’s main window. It cost half a credit to read each day’s stories, which Jazen generously charged to his own account. Articles updated themselves automatically as news broke, video footage ran in a media player, and the lead story’s headline literally jumped off the page.
As Jazen prepared another extravagant breakfast, he read the paper over Jack’s shoulder. “I didn’t really say that,” Jack told Jazen. “I didn’t threaten anyone. They’re twisting it.”
Jack had told Jazen how he’d found out that the Rüstov that had attacked him at St. Barnaby’s was Revile. Smart was spinning the facts to his advantage, making it sound like Jack and Revile were on the same side.
“He never misses an opportunity, does he?” Jazen said, trailing off with a grumble. “Still, I wouldn’t say any more about this Revile business if I were you. It’s only going to scare people, and the city is afraid of you enough as it is.”
Jack couldn’t argue with that. He was already short on friends, and it was plain to see that the situation would not improve with him telling everyone that Revile, the worst Rüstov ever, was back. But while Jack was willing to leave the Revile question alone, he would’ve been lying if he had said it didn’t worry him. If that really had been Revile back at St. Barnaby’s, he could be out there right now. He could attack at any moment. Who would stop him this time?
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