History Literature / JackBlank

* AuthorityEqualsAsskicking: The Inner Circle is made up of Empire City's most famous and most powerful heroes. [[AsskickingEqualsAuthority In most cases, this was likely the reason they were elected in the first place.]]

* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Clarkston Noteworthy fills this role, but when he's introduced he does have a day job as the Circleman that replaced Jonas Smart after the last election. However, Noteworthy is more concerned about socializing than doing his job as a politician.

* WeekendInventor: Jack becomes this in ''The Secret War'', having spent a year developing new gadgets for himself to use.

* TheMole: The Great Collaborator, Silico, led the Rüstov to the Imagine Nation and opened its defenses to attack. [[spoiler: He didn't do this willingly, however. The Rüstov implanted Silico with a computer virus so he would do their bidding. Jazen Knight is revealed to have been a mole in the same exact way at the end of the first book. It's taken UpToEleven in the second: if Jack doesn't find a cure for the Rüstov computer virus, every Mecha in Empire City would become this]].

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Lorem Ipsum's hair is purple.

* StockSuperpowers: On a FloatingIsland where everyone is a super person of one kind or another this is guaranteed.
** A DishingOutDirt woman made from solid stone is seen talking to a ShockAndAwe man on the landing pad.
** {{Flight}} is common enough that the immigration checkpoint has several lines consisting of people floating in mid-air.
** Fighters using FlyingFirepower via MoreDakka and {{Jetpack}}s
** Stendeval can do anything with his SwissArmySuperpower he can imagine until he runs out of {{Mana}}.
%% ** KiManipulation: Many from Karateka.
** Laser Girl and a boy throwing HardLight frisbees using [[LightEmUp light manupulation]].
** Part of the Peacekeepers Alpha Squad is a [[MakeMeWannaShout Battlecry]].
** Trea is able to [[SelfDuplication divide herself into three]]; one is all-brains, one is all-brawn, and the third is all-randomly-decided-trait.
** Allegra can become [[NighInvulnerability diamond hard]] or a [[MakingaSplash puddle]], and can [[RubberMan stretch into almost any form]].
** A man Jack sees at the landing pad is made from [[ShockAndAwe pure lightning]].
** Jonas Smart has SuperIntelligence, and he'll tell you any chance he'll get.
** Speedrazor combines SuperSpeed with [[AbsurdlySharpBlade absurdly sharp fingers]].
** At the landing pad, an old man is seen [[SuperStrength carrying]] his jet plane.
** Jack is primarily a {{Technopath}}

* TemporalParadox: Revile attempts one of these to ensure he will never become what he is. [[spoiler: He attempted to murder Jack three times but had failed: the first because Stendeval intervened and believed in InfantImmortality, the second because Revile hesitated and [[PowerIncontinence got blasted away by Jack's powers on accident]], and the third because Jack creatively used his powers to defeat him.]] He manages to at least delay the time of his transformation [[spoiler: but in the end it is the actions of Jack and others who prevent Revile from ever winning a single battle for the Rüstov. Even the future Revile helps Jack out]].

* {{Curb Stomp Battle}}: The Rüstov against just about every civilization in existence as demonstrated by the sterilization of Mars and the destruction of the [[ProudWarriorRace Valorians]].
* {{Curse Cut Short}}: Jazen, twice. In the first book, Jazen responds to Smart's actions by saying "Son of a..." and stopping mid-sentence. In the third book, when Jazen is on hostage video, he tells Smart that when he gets out, he's "going to shove my fist so far up your-" only for the video to cut before he can finish.

* {{Dean Bitterman}}: Ross Calhoun, the head disciplinarian at St. Barnaby's. He is said to have only smiled four times in his entire life. The news of Jack being sent away causes the fifth.
* {{Death By Origin Story}}:

* {{Department of Redundancy Department}}: Jazen claims to work for [[DepartmentofRedundancyDepartment The Department of Departmental Affairs]] the beginning. Bonus points for saying it was part of a [[DepartmentofRedundancyDepartment Division of the Divisional Office]]
* {{Dies Wide Open}}: And with a smile on his face. Virtua makes a point of closing the dead body's eyes.
* {{Disney Death}}: In ''End of Infinity'', Jack's poor riding gets one of Zhi's dragons killed. He's extremely sorry but Zhi tells him not to worry about it because his dragons are mystical; they can get hurt and fade away but their deaths aren't permanent.
* {{Disney Owns This Trope}}: You can't walk more than a few feet without finding a part of Empire City that Smart Corp. hasn't touched. Most Smart products have their name on them, the company employs much of the city, and many media outlets all state that they are "Powered By Smart Corp."

* {{Dual Wielding}}: Skerren has two swords, which he always uses together.
* {{Easily Thwarted Alien Invasion}}: Averted. the Rüstov are not foes to be dealt with lightly and battles with them usually are a CurbStompBattle, and victories against them often come hard-fought and with heavy losses. Subverted when [[spoiler: Jack gets a good look at what a Rüstov-infected heart looks like, [[DramaPreservingHandicap which could not be done earlier because The Magus and Khalix were blocking Jack's senses to probe them]], and then Jack uses this knowledge to instantaneously use his technopathic powers, evict all Rüstov soldiers from their hosts and crush them to bits with a wave of his hand]].

* {{Empty Chair Memorial}}: There are seven seats in the Inner Circle, one for each Circleman of each of the six boroughs of Empire City, and a seventh that is appointed at their discretion. One seat is empty because it was formerly Legend's seat. The other empty seat belongs to Stendeval, Circleman of Cognito, who went missing around the time Legend died and no one in Cognito bothered to replace him. [[spoiler: Stendeval later turns out to be alive and ready to fill his seat again.]]
* {{Everybody Calls Him Barkeep}}: Prime is a high-ranking title in the Valorian military, and everyone refers to him as such. If he has a name, it's not mentioned.
* {{Everyone Is A Super}}: Not necessarily ''everybody'' in the Imagine Nation, but all people who live there are considered extraordinary in at least one way, not necessarily due to being BadassNormal or badass at all. That being said, a large portion of the population is super.
* {{Eye Scream}}: The first sign of a Rüstov infection. A dark ring forms around the right eye coupled with a line down the cheek. Also qualifies as a RedRightHand. Many find it notable that while Jack tests positive for an infection, he doesn't show these signs at all.
* {{Fake Memories}}: In addition to memory-wiping, Secreteers can make a person believe whatever the Secreteer wants them to believe.
* {{Family Of Choice}}: Jack considers Jazen to be his big brother even though Jazen is an android. He also considers his other friends to be his family. Lorem states outright that being a family is about more than blood.
* {{Fantastic Fruits and Vegetables}}: Kazellian Floovberries, which are rare and can only be found in the Kazellian Nebula. Jazen makes flopflips (read: light, airy blue pancakes) out of them.
* {{Fantastic Racism}}: Because Silico the infamous Great Collaborator was a Mecha, all Mechas like him were considered [[GuiltByAssociation suspects by association]] and regularly targeted and abused in years following the first Rüstov invasion, akin to the Japanese in America during WWII. However, they are considered ordinary citizens with full rights otherwise.

* {{Fighting for a Homeland}}: Villainous version. In ''End of Infinity'', the Magus addresses the people of the Imagine Nation telling them that he has decided to claim Earth as the Rüstov's new throneworld, and will [[PleaseSelectNewCityName promptly rename it "Rüst"]], just like their old one.
* {{Fire Forged Friends}}: Stendeval mentions this trope when Jack and Skerren first meet and refuse to get along. Neither boy agrees with Stendeval at first, but they do eventually become this.
* {{Floating Island}}: The Imagine Nation not only floats, but it roams, too.
* {{Forbidden Fruit}}: Comic books are extremely high on the list of banned items at St. Barnaby's. Naturally, Jack kept his comic collection hidden there. When the comics were found in the donation bin, they were ordered to be destroyed, but since they ordered Jack to destroy them, he took advantage of this to secretly hide the comics and read them for himself.
* {{Forced To Watch}}: What the Rüstov did to Jack in their theater of war. They taped his eyes open and rapidly played films of thousands of earlier Rüstov conquests on multiple screens in high definition and surround sound. At first Jack thinks this is horrible, but later chooses to think of it as ChekhovsLecture.
* {{Forgot About His Powers}}: In-Universe example. To prevent the kids from interfering, Obscuro uses his memory powers on Skerren and Allegra so they forget how to use their powers, and threatens to Jack that he could make them forget everything unless Jack stands down.

* {{Free Range Children}}: This trope is played with. The News Nets say there's trouble in downtown Karateka. Jazen leaves and tells Jack not to go, but Jack sneaks out anyway. He calls Allegra to come with him, and she didn't even ''need'' to sneak out because the Valorian Guard thought she was overcoming her fears and acting bravely by going out alone at night. Skerren is also out there, but he was already allowed to go.

* {{Future Me Scares Me}}: Jack [[spoiler: contains a Rüstov infection, which combined with his technopathic abilities made him very valuable to the Rüstov as a weapon. They turn him into Revile.]]
* {{Guilt Free Extermination War}}: While the Rüstov are declared unanimously as enemies by many alien species and the Rüstov themselves have declared war on all non-Rüstov races as stops in their intergalactic feast, Jack still feels some guilt fighting them because he knows around every Rüstov soldier is an innocent infected host body like himself.
* {{Hard Light}}: Every computer console and TV screen is like this. Also, the ubiquitous Smart Paper is a sheet of hard light with all the functionality of a laptop computer.

* {{Heroes Prefer Swords}}: Swords are Skerren's weapon of choice and the primary source of his powers. Jack is featured on the cover of ''The Secret War'' holding a sword, but the only time he uses it is near the end when Hypnova hands him a sword to defend himself against a mob of Rüstov soldiers, and it's hardly effective.
* {{Heroic Sacrifice}}: During the first Rüstov invasion, the hero Legend grabbed Revile and shoved both Revile and himself into the Infinite Warp Core engine of the Rüstov mothership. It was the only way to stop Revile from regenerating.

* {{Hero Stole My Bike}}: In ''The End of Infinity'', Jack and Roka need to commandeer a vehicle to get away from hostiles. Jack jacks a hovercar, which Roka remarks is very impressive and he even likes the color. Neither of them mind that the car's owner, Clarkston Noteworthy, is currently sitting inside it.
* {{Hero With Bad Publicity}}: Jack gets this constantly. People suspect and fear him due to his Rüstov infection and is regularly accused as a spy or villain before he even makes any actions because of it.
* [[MyNaymeIs His Name Iz]]: Jack figures out that Agent "Jason Knight" isn't what he's expected to be when he reads that his name is spelled "Jazen" on his badge.
* {{Human Popsicle}}: Jack's state in the epilogue of ''The Secret War''. [[spoiler: His body has been taken prisoner by the Rüstov and is en route to their throneworld, Rüst. His parasite Khalix taunts him by saying if Jack were awake instead of in cryosleep, he could look out the window and see the beautiful sight of Jupiter's moons]].

* {{Insufferable Genius}}: Jonas Smart tries to remind others of his genius any time he can. He wrote an entire book praising himself. His name is on nearly everything his company makes and still is upset that it's not on Maglev roads.
* {{Intangible Man}}: Using a device called a Ghost Suit, Solomon Roka manages to sneak about the Rüstov mothership and phase through walls to avoid detection.

* {{Its All About Me}}: At the end of ''End of Infinity'', a celebration is held in honor of all the heroes that fought the Rüstov, but Virtua agrees that Jack alone is the hero being honored. Jonas Smart calls the celebration a travesty because he's not the guest of honor and he also made significant contributions.
* {{Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique}}: Virtua accuses Smart of doing this toward her people, the Mechas, but has no proof. Smart says that if he did, he only used techniques such as circuit-boarding and [[DeniedFoodAsPunishment energy-deprivation]], which he claims are both perfectly legal procedures.

* {{Just A Machine}}: When Jack takes his first trip into cyberspace, Virtua decides she won't turn it on automatically and leave it to Jack to use his powers to enter cyberspace. She suggests using his powers to ask the machine nicely to help him out. Jack initially gives this response, but Virtua insists that both she and new his best friend Jazen Knight are machines too and Jack respects them, so he should be able to open his mind to communicate with others.
* {{Just Got Out Of Jail}}: Solomon Roka is a space pirate who raids Rüstov transport vessels and frees Rüstov prisoners for money. That's not illegal in itself, but he usually operates without a license or permit, and he was working in the Calculan sector, who are all about rules and regulations. The Calculans sentenced him for 942 years, but were willing to erase Roka's sentence if he would volunteer to rescue Jack from Rüstov.
* {{Keeping Secrets Sucks}}: This is the essential trope that runs ''The Secret War'' outside of [[WritersBlock Inventor's Block]]. Keeping secrets is what causes Jack's allies to lose faith in him very quickly, as well as [[PoorCommunicationKills several misunderstandings]].
* {{Killer Robot}}: Smart's War Hawk drones.
* {{Klingon Scientists Get No Respect}}: Inverted. The Rüstov spy Glave is impatient with the scientist who would carry out the experimental operation to create Revile, but does respect him. The doctor does not respect Glave, and also [[YourMom makes an insult about Glave's mother]] as Glave walks out.
* [[KneelBeforeZod Kneel Before The Magus]]
* {{Laser Guided Amnesia}}: A Secreteer specialty. Their memory powers are so laser-guided, they can give out "memory cards" that only appear blank; they have the recipient forget what's printed on them until the time is right.
* {{Last of Their Kind}}: The [[ProudWarriorRace Valorians]] who were the galactic police until a surprise attack by the Rüstov wiped out all but the battalion responding to the Rüstov decoy signal. They were extremely ecstatic to find Allegra on a refugee ship that escaped from a Rüstov body farm.
* {{Late for School}}: This is how ''The Secret War'' begins. It's been a full year since Jack single-handedly defeated Revile, and he's such a hero that people stop him for adoration and autographs even when he's trying to keep a low profile. He is chastised for this, saying he should be capable of handling adoring fans by now, [[{{Unishment}} and is punished by being made "it" in their game of anti-gravity tag]].

* {{Literal Change Of Heart}}: Smart was diagnosed with a terminal heart conditions, and multiple transplants had failed. Instead of giving up and dying, he had his heart removed and invented a system of magnets that pump his blood around; every day he eats [[ArtisticLicenseBiology iron-fortified foods to magnetize his blood.]] He's literally "heartless".

* {{Logical Weakness}}: Jack and his friends are following behind Midknight and Noteworthy, suspecting the latter two of treachery. Midknight doesn't want the kids following them, so he throws a gadget that traps them. Jack can't use his powers against it because it's made from OrganicTechnology.

* {{Loophole Abuse}}: The School of Thought is playing a game of tag and Jack is "it". Chi shoots an arrow and declares that the arrow is "safe". Jack responds by stealing the arrow, placing it in another spot and babysitting it. When his classmates protest, Chi says that Jack's move is not only legal, but is also very clever.
* {{Luke I Might Be Your Father}}: As a strategy to sow discord and gain points, Jonas Smart declares that Clarkston Noteworthy is Jack's father. Noteworthy proceeds to declare that while he did lose a son that would have been Jack's age during the first Rüstov invasion, he tells Jonas ThatThingIsNotMyChild. Jack decides that even if he doesn't know Smart's telling the truth or not, he refuses to think of Noteworthy as his father. [[spoiler: The truth is much more complicated. Noteworthy isn't Jack's father, but Jack's father's brother, meaning they are technically related by blood if not directly. Jack's actual father didn't even know that he was Noteworthy's brother or that he had a son]].
* {{Malicious Misnaming}}: Growing up in St. Barnaby's, Jack was repeatedly called bad names such as "Ugg Boy" and "Weirdo Face". When he arrives in Empire City for the first time, Skerren calls him "Rusty".
* MeaningfulName: Jack's last name, which actually came from his school papers. Whenever we wrote his name, it would only have Jack after it.

* {{Medieval Stasis}}: Enforced in Varagog. The borough sits in a [[GroundhogDayLoop time-pocket that makes every year 1404 down to the weather]], and no futuristic technology can function within its borders.
* {{Mega Corp}}: Smart Corp.
* {{Men Cant Keep House}}: In ''The Secret War'', at the tender age of 13 years, Jack moves into an apartment with a makeshift computer lab in the lower room, all by himself. It's barely furnished, it's disorganized and half the equipment is broken, and moldy takeout is lying around everywhere.
* {{Mentor Occupational Hazard}}: Stendeval doesn't die in ''End Of Infinity'', however [[spoiler: Stendeval attracts attention from the Magus because of Stendeval's SwissArmySuperpower that allows him to make himself one day younger every day. The Magus wants that power to add to his own as well as remove the need for him to keep discarding old host bodies in favor of fresher ones, so he moves in and takes Stendeval's body for his own]].
* {{The Mole}}: The Great Collaborator, Silico, led the Rüstov to the Imagine Nation and opened its defenses to attack. [[spoiler: He didn't do this willingly, however. The Rüstov implanted Silico with a computer virus so he would do their bidding. Jazen Knight is revealed to have been a mole in the same exact way at the end of the first book. It's taken UpToEleven in the second: if Jack doesn't find a cure for the Rüstov computer virus, every Mecha in Empire City would become this]].
* {{Monumental Damage}}: In an air battle, Jack is using his powers to fire missles at a Rüstov transport ship, but loses concentration. Stray missles destroy the statue of Legend by accident. Jack grumbles that everyone's going to think he did that on purpose.

* {{Motive Equals Conclusive Evidence}}: Subverted. Jack's logic believes ever since the first invasion of the Rüstov, Smart had sworn to protect the people of the Imagine Nation by implementing a lot of brutal practices, including SinisterSurveillance of the population and perpetuating FantasticRacism against Mechas, since The Great Collaborator, the one who betrayed the Imagine Nation by opening it up to the Rüstov, was a Mecha named Silico. Jack and Jazen come to the conclusion that Smart had orchestrated the whole Great Collaborator thing and pinned it on Silico to gain emergency wartime powers and keep them secure. When they bring this up to Smart, he's downright disgusted that they believe that of him because he would never even think of siding with the Rüstov, and he is quick to point out that they have absolutely no proof supporting their accusations. In short, Jack and Jazen had no proof and were also dead wrong.
* {{Multiarmed Multitasking}}: As Jack and Jazen arrive in Virtua's data center, she tells Jack not to worry that he's seeing multiple copies of her avatar (as well as a large number of other epileptic lights). She's just running multiple processes in the background trying to update her operating system while she's talking to them.
* [[spoiler: MyFutureSelfAndMe]]: [[spoiler: At the end of the third book, Jack already succumbed to his infection but the Revile from the first book still exists getting fried by the Infinite Warp Core engine. Jack wakes up Revile to help him defeat the Rüstov.]]
* {{My God What Have I Done}}: Revile has this reaction after being responsible for many of the victories of the Rüstov's infinite war. and manages to break free from their control.
* {{Never Found The Body}}: Averted with [[spoiler: Jazen, as they do find his twisted remains as the bottom of Smart Tower. See NotTheFallThatKillsYou below.]] Played straight at the end of the third book where many people go missing as a result of the all-out warfare that took place.
* {{New Neighbours as the Plot Demands}}: Lampshaded by Stendeval. Cognito's ChaosArchitecture means that the locations of residences move every few hours, but since the people of Cognito pride privacy and secrecy above all else, they usually don't worry about neighbors. When one of the daily twists sets Jack's and Stendeval's homes right next to each other, Stendeval says he's lucky because he just wanted to talk to Jack and now he doesn't have to go far to reach him.

* {{Once Green Mars}}: Provides the page quote. The Rüstov had ransacked Mars before coming to Earth, and Smart uses it as an example.
* {{Only One Name}}: An ironic example. Jack, being a foundling, is supposed to be just "Jack", but his AppropriatedAppellation Blank gives him two. However, Jack's friends Skerren and Allegra are referred to by only one name, and their parents' identities were known.
* {{Orcus On His Throne}}: The Magus is the biggest and most powerful Rüstov, but he doesn't do much in the way of actual fighting. His influence involves a lot of mental control: he controls all his troops with his mental influence and negatively affects Jack's ability to keep his infection in remission with that power as well.

* {{Pedestrian Crushes Car}}: Allegra falls off the outside of a car during a high-speed chase and lands on top of another car. Because she's {{Made of Iron}}, she's perfectly fine, but the car she lands on is not.
* {{Pensieve Flashback}}: Jack wasn't conscious for a year in Rüstov captivity. In ''End of Infinity'', he keeps getting troubled flashbacks about being on the operating table and experimented on, as well as viewing hundreds of planets die in the Rüstov Theater of War, courtesy of [[EnemyWithin his parasite]] attempting to break Jack's will and take control.
* {{People Farms}}: Allegra was born in one. The Rüstov are known to spend years on a conquered planet consuming it with little care until nothing but a barren husk remains and simply move onto the next; where they keep these farms is not known.
* {{Perma Stubble}}: Solomon Roka is first introduced with three days worth of stubble on his face.
* {{Phoneaholic Teenager}}: When Lorem Ipsum first appears in ''The Secret War'', she's using her phone to text her friends rather than supporting the supercriminals she's tagging along with. The next time she's seen, she's using her phone as an [=MP3=] player and could care less about what Jack's problems.

* {{Power Nullifier}}: Smart builds lots of these to stop Jack's technopathic powers, and they often get in the way at the worst moments.
* {{Priceless Ming Vase}}: Invoked by Stendeval when testing Allegra. He shows her an elaborate stained-glass sphere he owns, claims it's very old and very valuable and has a lot of sentimental value to him, and instructs Allegra to hand it to him... while he floats across the room, forcing her to use her stretching powers to do it. Allegra grows nervous, her hand turns to liquid and drops it, but Stendeval just calmly uses his powers to fix it as if it were never broken.

* {{Proud Warrior Race}}: The Valorians are known for fighting bravely; a true Valorian knows no fear and they usually fight to the death. However, they are also a peaceful people and usually fight to protect others.

* {{Psycho For Hire}}: Every member of the Peacemakers is implied to be like this in one way or another.

* {{Space Pirate}}: Solomon Roka is called one, but he [[InsistentTerminology insists on the term "high-risk entrepeneur"]].
* {{The Spock}}: Jonas Smart is heartless [[spoiler: literally]] and is about as calculating as Stendeval is caring.

* {{Really 700 Years Old}}: Every morning, the first thing Stendeval does with his powers is make himself one day younger. He's been doing this for the past 500 years.
* {{Red Herring}}: There's a big one in each book.

* {{Rich Idiot With No Day Job}}: Clarkston Noteworthy fills this role, but when he's introduced he does have a day job as the Circleman that replaced Jonas Smart after the last election. However, Noteworthy is more concerned about socializing than doing his job as a politician.
* {{Ridiculously Human Robot}}: Jazen looks indistinguishable from a human unless you run him through a metal detector or X-ray machine.
* {{Ridiculous Procrastinator}}: Jack in ''The Secret War'', but out of fear more than laziness. He could have finished his big project at the beginning of the book rather than at the end, but he was too afraid of using his powers to reach out to his own parasite in case it would wake up and take control, so he kept meandering around it by trying to find another source of Rüstov tech or focusing on other distractions to delay having to connect to his parasite.
* {{Robo Romance}}: Virtua spends much of ''End of Infinity'' acting very possessive of her newly-promoted Commander Jazen Knight when he gets in trouble. It isn't revealed until the very end that the two became a couple between books because they felt there were more important things to worry about. It's especially notable because in this trilogy, EveryoneIsSingle and there aren't any other romantic pairings.
* {{Robot Buddy}}: Jazen to Jack.
* {{Robot Republic}}: Machina is only one of Empire City's six boroughs, but it's populated entirely with mechanical folk, and they can elect their own representative to the Inner Circle.
* {{Robotic Reveal}}: Right at the beginning, Jazen sets off a metal detector's alarms at the New Jersey harbor, and Jack discovers that Jazen is a android when he passes through an X-Ray machine in the hall of records, and opens up his arm to reveal the mechanisms inside it. Jazen didn't want to tell Jack right away because he didn't want to [[MindScrew blow Jack's mind]].
* {{Rousing Speech}}: Stendeval delivers one of these for the Dedication Day festivities, and decides to re-name the holiday Rededication Day. Since no one in the Imagine Nation had seen the beloved hero for over a decade, his return received a very positive response.
* {{Royal Brat}}: [[spoiler: Jack's parasite, Khalix, is the son of the Magus, which makes him the Rüstov prince.]] And he spends every moment trolling Jack.

* {{Royals Who Actually Do Something}}: Hovarth is the warrior king of Varagog village, and he always leads his people in combat.

* {{Scary Dogmatic Aliens}}: The Rüstov.
* {{Science Hero}}: In line with his technopathic abilities, Virtua encourages Jack to study physics and engineering to [[EnlightenmentSuperpowers get a much better grasp on how machines work so he can interact with them better]]. However, while he does build his own inventions and work on his secret projects, his friend Trea still mocked him because she found more than half of his scientific data from his notes incorrect. Part of Trea's power set is super-intelligence, which Jack doesn't have, and [[RequiredSecondaryPowers trying to understand things beyond college and at the super-intelligent level isn't automatically easy for him being only thirteen without super-enhanced intelligence]], but having technopathic abilities helps out a lot.

* {{Self Destruct Mechanism}}: Every Rüstov Para-Soldier is equipped with one. They use the Omega Protocol as [[TakingYouWithMe their way of avoiding capture]]. Revile attempted to use the Omega Protocol to end the first Battle of Empire City before Legend intervened.
* {{Sinister Surveillance}}: Everywhere, from flying Smart Cams to Peacemaker teams in the streets. The people of Machina especially have no privacy.
* {{Shut Up Hannibal}}: Jack responds to Magus' BreakingSpeech. He says that the Rüstov have thirty seconds to withdraw from Earth or he would come in rampaging and destroy them all.
* {{Soft Glass}}: During Jack's escape from a battle, Jack drives a hovercar through a building and crashes it out through a window. None of the passengers are harmed and the car is still perfectly drivable afterward; Roka's only upset that Jack didn't give any warning that they would go through a window because he was driving a convertible.
* {{StableTimeLoop}}: Double-subverted. [[spoiler: Revile attempts to kill Jack as a child so Jack never gets the chance to become Revile. Going back in time to kill Jack the first time puts special attention on Jack so he was sent away and protected as he grew up. Revile's second attempt to kill Jack called more attention to the boy, which brought him back to the Imagine Nation and nominated for training in the School of Thought. Revile's last-ditch attempt to stop Jack from realizing his future is to stop the Rüstov from kidnapping him and taking him to Rüst for processing, but since [[RetGone Revile doesn't disappear]], he believes that only delayed the future rather than preventing it outright. Eventually, Jack succumbs to his Rüstov infection, but he doesn't stay Revile long enough to commit the millenia of atrocities Revile feels guilty for, and through the future Revile's help he manages to defeat the Rüstov and has his human body restored, effectively meaning the time loop was broken and somehow Revile exists even though he isn't chronologically supposed to]].
* {{Stock Superpowers}}: On a {{Floating Island}} where everyone is a super person of one kind or another this is guaranteed.
** {{Dishing Out Dirt}}: A woman made from solid stone is seen talking to a {{Shock and Awe}} man on the landing pad.
** {{Flight}}: Common enough that the immigration checkpoint has several lines consisting of people floating in mid-air.
** {{Flying Firepower}}: Played straight and zig-zagged through use of {{More Dakka}} and {{Jetpack}}s
** {{Green Lantern Ring}}: Stendeval can do anything he can imagine until he runs out of {{Mana}}. Also doubles as {{Swiss Army Superpower}}.
** KiManipulation: Many from Karateka.
** {{Light Em Up}}: Laser Girl and a boy throwing {{Hard Light}} frisbees.
** {{Make Me Wanna Shout}}: Part of the Peacekeepers Alpha Squad: Battlecry.
** {{Mes A Crowd}}: Trea is able to divide herself into three; one is all-brains, one is all-brawn, and the third is all-randomly-decided-trait.
** {{Shapeshifting}}: Allegra can become [[NighInvulnerability diamond hard]] or a [[MakingaSplash puddle]], and can [[RubberMan stretch into almost any form]].
** {{Shock and Awe}}: A man Jack sees at the landing pad is made from pure lightning.
** {{Super Intelligence}}: Jonas Smart, and he'll tell you any chance he'll get.
** {{Super Speed}}: Speedrazor. He also has [[AbsurdlySharpBlade absurdly sharp fingers]].
** {{Super Strength}}: At the landing pad, an old man is seen ''carrying'' his jet plane.
** {{Technopath}}: This is Jack's primary ability.
* {{Strawman News Media}}: Smart News is painted as this. It regularly only tells Jonas Smart's side of the story, makes him look good, and uses ManipulativeEditing to make Rüstov-infected Jack look bad.
* {{Sufficiently Advanced Aliens}}: the Rüstov and the [[ProudWarriorRace Valorians]].
* {{Superhero School}}: The School of Thought is one, however it's not really so much a "school" as it is an educational program that's generally improvised by the Inner Circle.
* {{Super Powered Robot Meter Maids}}: Jazen's job is to bring people to the island and escort them around. He's capable of neutralizing 72% percent of any threats that they might encounter. Jack doesn't find that assuring at first, but in the Imagine Nation, 72% covers a lot of potential situations. Jazen is a lot tougher than he appears, being downright bulletproof, able to stop super-speedsters with his hands, scan areas for potential threats and the hydraulics in his legs can allow him to leap across large gaps between rooftops.
* {{Supreme Chef}}: Jazen can cook really well. He has 2.7 million recipes stored in his databank, including flopflips made from Kazellian floovberries and scissor shark steaks. Doubles as DeafComposer when Blue remarks how someone without tastebuds can cook so well.
* {{Swiss Cheese Security}}: Subverted. Jack manages to break into Smart Tower with Jazen's help by crashing through a window. They instantly meet up with Speedrazor, but Jazen subdues and [[VoiceChangeling impersonates him on the comlink]] to avoid suspicion. Jack then covers his eyes and other parts of his body that biometric scanners would pick up and uses his technopathic powers to ask the kiosks to guide him where he needs to go, and he does so successfully. However, when he finally reaches his destination, Jonas Smart is already there waiting for him; he was tracking Jack's progress the whole time and allowed him and Jazen to break in to lead them into a trap.
* {{Talking In Your Sleep}}: Jack does this, and it's apparently coherent enough that his friends manage to hear the whole story about what the Rüstov did to him in captivity.
* {{Teleportation Sickness}}: Jack feels this the first time Stendeval uses his powers to teleport him, the other prospective School of Thought students and the rest of the Inner Circle to Mount Nevertop. Chi tells Jack that he'll get used to it over time.
* {{Tell Me About My Father}}: Jack doesn't have a family, but is very curious to learn who they are. The first time he has a chance to read his birth certificate, the file ends up corrupted, then deleted before he can read it. The second time, he hears from Obscuro that he knows about a father, [[spoiler: [[YankTheDogsChain but he was referring to The Magus, the father of Jack's parasite, Khalix]]]]. The third time, Jonas Smart declares and insists that Clarkston Noteworthy is Jack's father, but the two [[IHaveNoSon deny the familial relationship]] and have nothing but enmity for each other. [[spoiler: It's not until the very end that Jack finds out his real father is Solomon Roka, whom he had [[IntergenerationalFriendship grown to become close friends with]] throughout the third book, and neither of them knew it until then]].
* {{Temporal Paradox}}: Revile attempts one of these to ensure he will never become what he is. [[spoiler: He attempted to murder Jack three times but had failed: the first because Stendeval intervened and believed in InfantImmortality, the second because Revile hesitated and [[PowerIncontinence got blasted away by Jack's powers on accident]], and the third because Jack creatively used his powers to defeat him.]] He manages to at least delay the time of his transformation [[spoiler: but in the end it is the actions of Jack and others who prevent Revile from ever winning a single battle for the Rüstov. Even the future Revile helps Jack out]].
* {{The Call Knows Where You Live}}: Revile is hunting Jack, and knows precisely where to find him: at St. Barnaby's. Afterward, Jazen appears to collect Jack, saying he got a note from Stendeval telling him where to find Jack. [[spoiler: Justified. Revile is Jack's evil future self, and Stendeval reveals later that he was the one who placed Jack in St. Barnaby's to hide him from Revile]].
* {{Timey Wimey Ball}}: Revile goes back in time to [[TemporalParadox prevent his future from ever happening]]. He dies in the attempt. Jack carefully examines Revile's remains and uses his findings to ensure Revile's future never happens. Revile's remains ''don't disappear''. Where did they come from?
* {{Tragic Dropout}}: Lorem Ipsum, because her father wanted to take her out of the School of Thought and train her himself. Implied with Trea's former classmates: she's the only one in her year because the others dropped out, but the text doesn't mention who they are or how many of them there were.
* {{Tribal Carry}}: What the Varagog villagers do to Jack after he crashes the medical evacuation vehicle in their borough.
* {{Unlimited Wardrobe}}: As a hologram, Virtua employs this. She can wear a different outfit when she projects herself in a different place. She even can change color when she wants to.
* {{Unusually Uninteresting Sight}}: Lampshaded in the first book. Jack doesn't know what's more surprising: the constant superfighting outside or that he's actually getting used to seeing them.

* {{Unwilling Roboticisation}}: This is what a Rüstov parasite does to its host: circuits rise from under the skin, flesh and bones turns to rusted metal, blood turns to oil, and [[PossessionBurnout the longer a Rüstov stays in a host body, the more advanced this technological transformation gets]]. Ironically, the Rüstov themselves don't see this as desirable either. Rüstov pride purity and freshness in their hosts; having mechanical imperfections appear as a result of feeding off the host is referred to as "decay", and Rüstov nobility would discard bodies as hand-me-downs to the lower class because the slightest sign of decay is not presentable.
* {{Unwitting Pawn}}: See TheMole, above.
* {{Virtual Celebrity}}: Not a musician, but a politician. Virtua, the Circlewoman of Machina, is contained within a large data center and uses a HardLight projection in the "unplugged" world.
* {{We Can Rebuild Him}}: [[spoiler: Jazen's body gets badly crushed after falling off Smart Tower at the end of ''Accidental Hero''. Jack manages to repair him by the end of ''Secret War'' with upgrades included.]]
* {{Weekend Inventor}}: Jack becomes this in ''The Secret War'', having spent a year developing new gadgets for himself to use.
* {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}: Jonas Smart only wants to keep the Imagine Nation safe from the Rüstov and make sure they are prepared in the event of another invasion, however his methods of doing so are often brutal and invasive.
* {{When Trees Attack}}: In the second book, harming Gravenmurk Glen causes hostile golems made from plants and earth to rise up and defend themselves.
* {{Where It All Began}}: Not as an ending, but as a beginning. ''Accidental Hero'' has Jack leaving behind St. Barnaby's after they failed to believe his CassandraTruth about a robo-zombie. At the beginning of ''End Of Infinity'', Jack crash-lands a starship right next to St. Barnaby's by accident, and they still have trouble believing he's returned and that his friends Allegra and Jazen are real.

* {{You Cant Fight Fate}}:

* {{You Gotta Have Blue Hair}}: Lorem Ipsum's hair is purple.