William Eddison really, really doesn’t want to tell Adam’s parents that he lost their precious little boy.
Fortunately, he’s on the group chat for not one, but two, teenage superhero teams. Teams full of people who totally get where he’s coming from here. Teams with people who like Adam.
One of them really likes Adam, in perhaps weird ways. But she’s also been pretty weird generally since she got back from space.
Armiger doesn’t care. If anyone can get him back, she can.
Keri Maldonado sees the message on her phone. “Some space jerk took Adam. Not one of the Trio.” It comes with an attached location.
Since her return from traveling with the HHL, she’s put off talking to Adam over and over. She’s the worst, she’s been an embarrassment, she’s been a total jerk to absolutely everyone, and he’s gonna hate her.
But right now, Adam needs her.
She throws open her bedroom window and hurls herself out of it, rocketing toward Armiger’s last location.
Supersonic flight is strictly regulated in the city. There are superheroes who can fly that fast, and do so close to the ground, but doing so causes considerable property damage and disruption in the form of broken windows, blaring car alarms, and the like.
Keri does not, quite, break the speed of sound getting to Armiger’s location, in the abandoned part of the industrial sector.
“Where?” she asks, hovering over where the swordsman and his trainer are standing.
They point upward, along the path taken by Somber.
She follows their fingers skyward, pushing herself right to the limit.
Above the cloud layer, she can make out the distant flash of purple light, and burns toward it.
She sees a hovering figure, probably the “space jerk” Armiger mentioned, and floats toward him. She can see purple cubes arrayed about him. She doesn’t see Adam, but knows how his bubbles work. Are these cubes the same kind of thing? Time to find out.
“Give Adam back,” she orders.
“He’s not ready yet,” the stranger responds calmly.
She decides to lay it down. Being the Lamb is still new, and unfamiliar. “Give him back or I’ll hurt you.”
Somber raises their eyes and looks at her. “If you hurt me, I’ll do what you want, because I don’t want to be hurt any more?” they ask curiously.
The question takes her aback. Well yeah, of course… Who wants to hurt? “Yeah,” she says, uncertainly. The anger returns after a moment. “Last chance.”
“Then. Please, go ahead. Hurt me,” Somber says, with an inviting hand gesture.
She’s now even more confused. How do you react to something like that?
“I mean it!” she shouts.
“I believe you. You have caused much suffering and great destruction, Keri Maldonado. And you will cause more.”
Keri shakes her head violently, obeying some animal instinct to free herself from entanglement. “You’ve got Adam!” she shouts, re-centering herself on what’s important, and lunges forward.
Keri’s technique was never sophisticated. Overpower the enemy, often by charging through them. She refined that technique during her months in space, fighting Blot spaceships and bases. She uses it now.
The space jerk surrounds themselves with a purple aura, and she smashes into it. She feels the full force come back at her, and tumbles away in the air.
She tries again, putting more force into it, and this time the barrier is stronger than before.
“It is your own fury that resists you,” the space jerk says.
Keri is really irritated now. She hates it when smart people are smug, and try to teach her something. She’s trying to do better, she knows she has flaws, but why does this weirdo have to rub it in her face?
But they aren’t done talking. “Balance your fury with your love for Adam.”
In space, she was taking out her aggression on any alien that crossed her path. All the members of the HHL were, really.
She’s going to take Adam back from this space jerk. She’s going to be better.
She charges again. This time, the barrier shatters, and Somber is knocked halfway across the sky.
There’s one big floating purple cube left. She draws back to punch it apart, only to hear Somber’s voice in her mind.
“If you break the Enigma as you are now, he will know.”
That word, “know”, tells her everything. Adam will really see what an awful human being she’s been. He’ll realize how bad she is. He’ll judge her for her sins.
But there’s someone else who has been able to break Concordance bubbles.
Armiger and Jaycee see Keri descend, gingerly holding onto a purple cube.
“Your sword can break these, right?” she asks.
Armiger glances at Jaycee and back to Keri. “Yeah…?”
Her face is set, and her tone is firm. “Do it.”