Free Jack Blank and the End of Infinity by Matt Myklusch Page B

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.
    “Jack, the exit’s back that way,” Allegra said.
    “Which one?”
    “All of them! Jack!”
    Allegra ducked down as Jack drove right into the building’s front entrance, smashing through the brass double doors and knocking them off their hinges. He took the car through the main lobby and tore down the hallway. Peoplescreamed and jumped out of the way as the HoverCar flew like a cannonball down the wide marble concourse.
    “Great. We’re in a building. Now what?” Roka said.
    “Don’t ask me,” Jack said. “I’m making this up as I go.”
    “We better figure something out quick,” Allegra said, pointing ahead. “Look!”
    Jack looked up and saw a team of WarHawks crash through the wall at the end of the hall.
    “What happened to Stendeval?” Roka asked.
    Jack looked out the window to his right and saw Stendeval using his powers to hold back the vast majority of Smart’s WarHawks and Hovarth’s medieval warriors. “He’s buying us time to escape.”
    “Escape to where?” Allegra asked. “Where are we going?”
    Through the windows to his left, Jack saw the borough of Cognito. Its skyline was starting to shift. Empire City’s mysterious and ever-changing borough was home to countless superhero hideouts and secret lairs. Once every day, the borough transformed itself, rearranging every building and street within its borders and moving them to new locations. Every day, a new maze of buildings, bridges, and roads was born in Cognito. As the boroughstarted to move, Jack realized he’d finally caught a break.
    “I have an idea,” Jack announced, and yanked the wheel to the left, crashing through the windows and out onto the city streets. “Hang on!”
    The HoverCar cleared the building and latched onto the magnetic fields in the MagLev roadways. “You’re supposed to yell ‘hang on’ before you crash through a window,” Roka shouted as Jack weaved through traffic like a race car driver. “This is a convertible, you know.”
    “Sorry,” Jack replied, speeding away from Hero Square with the WarHawks hot on his tail.
    Zhi, Trea, and Lorem flew up next to Jack, keeping pace with him. “Where are we going, Jack?” Zhi asked. “What’s the plan?”
    The WarHawks fired missiles past Jack’s car and blew up huge chunks of the road. Jack swerved to avoid the massive potholes as HoverCars crashed to the left and right of him. “We have to lose them. Follow me—and stay close!”
    Jack drove straight, even as the road ahead turned hard to the right. He jumped the curb and