The End of Infinity

by Matt Myklusch

  “We still have the power to stop this!” Smart shouted.

  “He’s wrong, Jack,” Khalix said. “It’s already too late.”

  Jack reached for the railing to keep himself upright. He tried to ask for help, but nothing came out. He choked on his words and grabbed at his chest. He felt like someone had just run him through with a spear. Air came back into his lungs and he cried out, falling to the floor. The pain struck faster than lightning, just like when the Magus had attacked him with his mind. Jack clawed at his forehead as he writhed on the ground in agony. His friends ran to him.

  “Jack! Jack! What is it?” Blue shouted.

  “It’s time, Jack,” Khalix answered inside Jack’s head. “My father’s coming.”

  “No!” Jack shouted back. He forced himself to sit up. “Not yet.” He put his hands on his temples and shut his eyes tight, grunting as he tried to overcome the pain on willpower alone. The pain subsided but did not vanish entirely. The dull throbbing of a migraine remained.

  “Jack, talk to us,” Allegra said. “What’s going on?”

  A squadron of Rüstov Shardwings screamed across the sky, and Allegra had her answer. “It’s the Rüstov,” Jack said. “They’re here.”

  CHAPTER

  13

  Shock and Awe

  The crowd in Galaxis scrambled into chaos, and people ran off in every direction. The Rüstov Shardwings took over the sky, shooting up Empire City and strafing the crowd. Jack struggled back to the railing as buildings exploded in flames. People fell to the ground below as the predawn sky lit up with bright white flashes. It was like the city was being hit by a lightning storm, only the rolling thunder behind each flash was the sound of a Rüstov missile hitting its target. Concrete, steel, and glass sprayed the air like buckshot as explosions tore out the sides of buildings. Jack shielded his eyes, squinting through flying debris and laser fire. Towers crashed down to the ground, and screams of terror filled the air, all within less than a minute. It was bedlam. Jack had never seen war before. He’d been in his share of superfights, but never real war. It was horrible, and all he could think was Not now . . . we’re not ready.

  Only Prime was ready. The Shardwing fighters had yet to complete their first bombing run before he ordered his men into action. A hundred Valorian Guardsmen flew out of the dome, following Prime into battle. Their shining silver forms rose up in strategic attack formations. Their hands lit up with energy as they fired plasma blasts at the Rüstov starfighters.

  The red glare of exploding ships triggered another series of memories that hit Jack like a prizefighter’s punch. His vision blurred and a Rüstov war movie played in his mind. He saw more explosions. More battles. Hundreds of invasions from start to finish. It was like they were being uploaded directly into his brain.

  “Get down!” someone shouted as a Rüstov ship fired on the terrace, blasting half of it into tiny pieces. The real world came flooding back and Jack tried to run inside, but the ground beneath his feet gave way. He staggered a step and fell backward. He was going over the edge, but Allegra shot out an arm and grabbed him by the collar, just catching him with his heels on the broken ledge of the terrace. She reeled him back in and they ran inside the Garrison with Jack still struggling to deal with the pain in his head. The energy core in his chest was heating up and glowing bright red.

  “Stay with us, Jack,” Blue said, taking him by the arm. “You can do this. You fight them, hear me? Fight it!”

  Jack gritted his teeth and growled out a low, guttural noise. He could feel Khalix pushing his way around his head, trying to take him over. “Why do you do this to yourself?” Khalix asked. “You’re only prolonging the inevitable. Just let go. All your pain will go away if you just stop fighting.”

  “Remember what Roka said,” Allegra told Jack. “You don’t quit, right? We didn’t give up on you . . . that means you don’t get to give up either!”

  “It doesn’t matter if you give up or not,” Khalix interjected. “You’ve just had a crash course in Rüstov history. You know this is pointless. Deep down, you know it. My people have never lost a war.”

  Jack gripped Blue’s hand and got up onto his feet, reasserting himself against Khalix. He pressed a hand to his temple. Pain pounded in his ears, but not hard enough to keep him down. He’d keep going. He had to. Jack looked outside and saw Hovarth fighting the Rüstov alongside his men. Smart and Noteworthy were long gone.

  “Are you all right?” Stendeval asked.

  Jack gave a weary nod. “Let’s get out there. I want to hit something. Hard.”

  Blue clapped his hands. “There you go. Let’s do it.”

  “We can’t fight them on the ground,” Midknight said. “We need to get to Prime’s airfield before the Rüstov blow up the only ships we’ve got. Stendeval, can you ’port us there?”

  Stendeval turned up his palms. His hands lit up but fizzled like dying lightbulbs. “Not until dawn.”

  “There’s an underground tunnel that connects this Garrison with the launchpads,” Allegra said. “Follow me.”

  Allegra darted out the door, and everyone ran after her. She led the way through the lower levels of the Valorian Garrison and out into the war zone. As they came out of the underground tunnel, Jack and the others were greeted by a crashing Shardwing. One of the Valorian Guardsmen had taken out its engine and it barreled toward them like a flaming comet. Blue ran forward and threw his shoulder into the ship, diverting its path just enough to keep it from crashing into the mouth of the tunnel. Outside, the spaceport was pure anarchy. The skyline was rife with fire and people ran everywhere. The injured were limping through the street, blind and bleeding.

  “We have to help these people,” Jack said. Everything he was feeling about Noteworthy, Smart, Khalix, and Revile took a backseat to the battle and its imminent casualties. He stopped to tend to an injured woman who was bleeding badly. Stendeval tore off his crimson sash to make a bandage and applied pressure to her wound. He didn’t have any superpowered energy left, but he did have five hundred years’ worth of heroic experiences, a cool head, and plenty of lifesaving know-how. He was helping the woman to her feet when another Rüstov missile struck the building next to him. Flames spilled out into the street, and tiny bits of debris pelted Jack and the others.

  “C’mon!” Roka shouted. “If we want to help these people, we’ve gotta stop these bombs from falling.”

  The wall behind them crumbled at the base and started to topple over. Blue rushed in to brace it before it crushed more wounded innocents. “Someone’s gotta stop the buildings from falling too,” he said. Blue motioned with his head toward the launchpads. “You guys go ahead. I can’t fly one of those things anyway.”

  Jack nodded. There was no time to argue, and Blue was right. He and his friends were needed everywhere.

  “I’m staying too,” Stendeval said. “When my power returns, I’ll join you in the sky.”

  “Good luck,” Jack said.

  “And to you,” Stendeval replied. “Now go!”

  Jack and the others ran out into the spaceport of Galaxis and went straight for a hangar filled with star-fighters. They raced to the launchpads, where a row of ships stood ready and waiting. Just before they reached them, a Shardwing tore through the hangar and laid down a blanket of blinking metal fragments on top of the parked spaceships.

  “Evac, now!” Midknight yelled as the Shardwing blasted its way out through the wall on the hangar’s opposite side. The ships in the hangar exploded one after the other, all in a row. The successive blasts built on top of one another, growing in heat and intensity. It was like someone had rolled a bowling ball out into a minefield. Allegra stretched into a protective shield to guard the others against the flames and flying shrapnel. Once the heat blast had passed, there was nothing but flaming wreckage left inside the hangar.

  “There!” Jack yelled. He pointed across the spaceport to another set of launchpads where more starships were waiting. Jack used his powers to slide bac
k the canopies on a group of well-armed fighters known as Mavericks. Midknight and Roka each climbed into a ship. Jack picked one for himself and started up its side. He was nearly settled into the cockpit when Allegra tapped his shoulder. He turned around and saw that Trea, her two other selves, Lorem, and Zhi were all busy mounting Zhi’s dragons.

  “Don’t know how to fly those things,” Zhi said, motioning to the ships. He patted his dragon’s back. “We’ll stick with these guys.”

  Jack nodded and looked at Allegra. “What about you?”

  “If you think I’m leaving you alone right now, you’re crazy. What’s going to happen if you have another one of your episodes up there?”

  Jack thought about that for a second. Allegra had a point. “All right, let’s go,” he said, jumping down from the ship. “We’ll take that one.”

  Jack took Allegra’s hand and ran to a larger ship with the word “MedEvac” written on the side in red letters. It looked like a flying ambulance. “That’s a search-and-rescue ship,” Allegra said as Jack climbed into the pilot’s seat.

  “Trust me, this is the one for us.”

  Allegra shrugged. “Where do you want me?”

  Jack mentally popped open a hatch near the tail of the ship and pointed to the chair inside it. He gave a nod, and several panels on the ship’s exterior flipped over to reveal a multitude of armaments. “They use these things for pulling people out of war zones. Just grab the gun and keep your finger on the trigger.”

  “I can do that.” Allegra stretched up to the gunner’s battle station and poured herself into it. Jack strapped himself in as the Rüstov fighters came back around for another attack run. It had been a crushing assault so far. The Shardwing fighters were everywhere, and they just kept coming. His classmates on the dragons flew up to meet them. Jack used his powers to turn on the engines of the Maverick fighters that Midknight and Roka were strapped into. Roka’s ship made an ugly screeching noise.

  “Easy, kid! I already hot-wired mine,” Roka said.

  “Couldn’t wait, huh?” Midknight asked over the radio.

  “Waiting’s never been my strong suit.”

  “Don’t wait on me, then, get going!” Jack shouted. The city wasn’t ready for this fight, which meant he and his friends had to be. Jack fired up his engine, and seconds later he was up in the sky, joining Prime and the Valorian Guard as they brought the fight back to the Rüstov.

  CHAPTER

  14

  Returning Fire

  Jack and Allegra shot down a pair of Shardwings on their way up, reducing them to the metal shards they took their name from. They received some businesslike nods of appreciation from Prime and the other Valorians, who went right back to shooting plasma blasts at the Rüstov fighters and gang-tackling enemy ships to pull them apart. There were more heroes in the air fighting as well. Jack didn’t recognize many of them, but it looked like they hailed from all the different boroughs. He was glad to see people dropping everything and jumping into the fight when it counted, but it didn’t change the fact that Empire City had been caught sleeping. The whole situation burned Jack up inside. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. He had warned everybody this was coming. They could have been ready. Jack cursed Smart and his endless power plays, kidnapping Jazen and turning the city against itself. He was probably holed up in a bunker somewhere by now. Meanwhile, the crowd of people he had led to Prime’s door were all caught in the crossfire.

  Jack brought the ship around to face the Rüstov and charged forward into a wall of enemy fire. Roka and Midknight followed him in. Jack bobbed and weaved through the onslaught of enemy laser blasts and around the advancing starfighters, narrowly missing head-on collisions by inches and swirling through the air. He couldn’t use his powers against the Rüstov, but his own ship was another matter entirely. The aircraft Jack flew was built for med-team extractions, not aerial assaults, but with him at the helm it was like an untouchable stealth fighter. He used his powers to help the targeting system tag Shardwings the second they came within range, and Allegra blew them out of the sky. Jack’s friends flew actual stealth fighters and did the same. Midknight squared off in a dogfight against three Shardwings and picked them off one by one. Shardwings chased Roka through the air from the opposite end of the sky, but he and Midknight flew at each other like they were playing chicken and veered off at the very last second. The Rüstov fighters behind them crashed into one another, exploding into a gorgeous fireball. Every time they took out a Rüstov gunship, they saved lives. As Jack flew across the city, with Allegra firing away, he could see the whole battlefield. Jack could feel how many ships were out there. He was surprised that there weren’t more of them. Things had felt more chaotic on the ground.

  “He’s not here,” Jack said over the radio. “The Magus isn’t here yet.”

  “First good news we’ve had all day,” Roka said. “This isn’t the full invasion. Not enough ships. This is just the first wave.”

  “The bad news is, the first wave is winning,” Midknight said.

  “Of course we are,” Khalix gloated inside Jack’s head. “We have destiny on our side.”

  Jack bristled at Khalix’s constant interruptions. “You talk too much.” He took control of the weapons systems for a moment and sent six tiny missiles out at the same number of Shardwings. “You all do,” he added as the Rüstov ships burst into flames. “I’m listening in on their radio chatter,” Jack called out to his friends. “It’s filled with static, but I can make out enough to run with. Roka’s right. This attack is just them trying to break us. They’re setting up a command post with ground troops on Wrekzaw Isle, and Glave is there! That’s where we need to go.”

  “Wrekzaw Isle it is,” Midknight said. “Let’s go, people.”

  Midknight turned his Maverick toward Wrekzaw, the downed Rüstov vessel from the first invasion that still circled the Imagine Nation like a ghost ship. Jack and Roka rocketed after the old hero, bearing down on a legion of fighters that had created a blockade off the coast of the island. There were more Shardwing squadrons and several midsize gunships as well. It was a lot of firepower for four ships to take on, enough to make anybody think twice. “This is really just the first wave?” Allegra asked.

  Jack swallowed hard as he approached the blockade. Allegra had a point. The amount of fighters in the sky definitely put the might of the Rüstov Armada in perspective. Jack didn’t know what was scarier, the fact that this was just a minor force, or the major damage it had already done. Far off in the distance, Jack could see the ships forming an escort for a giant Rüstov battleship. Jack had never seen its like before, but he was about to get a very good look at it.

  The air between the Imagine Nation and Wrekzaw Isle was alive with bullets and exploding shells—enough to make the airspace over the city seem peaceful by comparison. Luckily, Jack had experience dodging bullets. Just like he had with the Harbinger, Jack bypassed the ship’s controls in favor of flying with his mind. His reaction times were amplified by a direct connection with the ship’s radar system, helping him anticipate enemy movements and change course with the speed of thought. The Rüstov Armada pressed the advantage of superior numbers against Jack from every direction, but they couldn’t touch him. He searched the sky for the Apocalypse. Nothing. He felt for the Magus with his powers. It was definite. He wasn’t here. Jack breathed a sigh of relief. “Your father isn’t here yet, Khalix. You lied about that.” What else were you lying about? Jack wondered.

  “I don’t need to lie to you, Jack. The truth will set me free.”

  Another slideshow of graphic combat images poured into Jack’s brain. A century’s worth of battles in the Rüstov’s infinite war. Why was he seeing this again? Jack fought through this onslaught quicker than the last, but mental time-outs of any duration are not an option while flying an aircraft. When Jack’s head cleared, alarms were blaring and red lights were flashing in the ship’s cabin. “Rüstov on our six, Jack!” Allegra shouted. “They’ve got missile l
ock!”

  Jack shook his head and dove his ship down toward the ocean, trying to shake the Shardwing on his tail. The enemy ship followed right behind like it was magnetically attached. Roka swooped in and blew it out of the sky, but not before it fired three missiles at Jack.

  “Rüstov warheads, coming in hot!” Allegra shouted.

  “I got ’em,” Roka said over the radio. “Just give me some space.” Jack turned back toward the city and pushed his ship hard, trying to put as much room as he could between his tailfin and the missiles that were chasing it. As he crossed back over Galaxis, Roka swooped in to pull them off his tail. He cut across Jack’s jet wash, and the missiles locked onto his ship’s heat signature instead.

  “Roka, they’re on you now!” Jack shouted.

  “Got ’em right where I want ’em,” Roka said. He spun around and raced back toward the blockade, zigzagging on through in the direction of a midsize gunship. Just like when he was playing chicken with Jazen, Roka pulled up at the last possible moment and swung the Rüstov warheads straight into one of their own ships. The resulting explosion took out a gunship and the two Shardwings closest to it.

  “Nice moves, Roka!” Midknight said.

  Roka snorted out a small laugh. “You don’t last long raiding Rüstov ships if you don’t have a few tricks up your sleeve.”

  “I wondered if Roka has any idea how hard it is to get a compliment like that out of Midknight,” Allegra said.

  “Doubt it,” Jack replied.

  Midknight and Roka kept up their aerial assault, trying to poke enough holes in the Rüstov blockade to break it down, but they were up against a lot of ships, and the odds grew worse the farther away they got from Empire City. They were hopelessly outnumbered over Wrekzaw Isle. Jack’s sprint away from the missiles had taken him as far as Hightown. He had to get back out there and help his friends. He turned his ship around and nearly crashed into a train that was running down the side of a building.