Jordan had a really weird dream. And so like so much else, she tells Anty about it.
“I dreamed I was older and Adam was my age, and I was goin’ to high school and bein’ a superhero, and Adam was in second grade and wasn’t, and I gave him some really good advice. I’m glad he listened to me in the dream. I just wish he listened to me when he’s awake.”
It’s after school, and she’s at home, lounging around. She’s supposed to be chopping vegetables, but she wanted to tell Anty about the dream first, and that meant being in her room, to remember it.
She hears the front door open and close. Oh shoot, Mom’s home early - time to do the veggies after all.
She rushes out, but finds Adam and the Rainbow Warriors instead.
“You gave the space bug’s bubble to Jordan?” Adam demands incredulously.
“Yeah, well. It was safe enough.” Kirk shrugs. “Jordan, we need the thing back.”
Jordan knows what the thing is! It’s the thing that holds the guy with lots of arms, that she sometimes talks to, and makes play tea time with her. “I’ll get it!”
She rushes back into her room, plucks the jewel-like object from her dresser, and hurries back. She holds it out to Kirk, but Adam takes it instead.
The bubble pops, and Ik’stik Klik is free!
“Finally! No Earth jail could hold me!” they exclaim, stretching their arms. “No Concordance prison could confine me! At last, I am…”
They stop and turn, seeing four Concordance agents staring at them.
“… I am confused.” It looks around with big unblinking eyes. “I am in Jordan’s home.”
Adam glances sharply at Kirk. “How do they know that?”
Kirk just shrugs.
Adam focuses on what he’s here for. “Ik’stik Klik, you have… a knack for finding working spaceships, I guess. And other things. Well, I need a ship. So please help me.”
“It is not Ik’stik Klik. I am Earth-style supervillain now,” the bug boasts. “I have a new name. A code name! A callsign! A moniker!”
“Oh?”
The creature pauses, while everyone watches expectantly.
“Space Bug.”
“Were you thinking that up just now?” Adam asks curiously.
“No! I paused for dramatic effect!”
“Space Bug isn’t a very dramatic name, though.”
“I like it!” Jordan announces.
Space Bug turns and clacks its claws together in appreciation. “Jordan! I am now springing this new appellation upon you as well. You were very receptive.”
Kirk begins warming up his powers. “The ship, bug. Or back in the bubble you go.”
“Yes. I have just the thing for discerning customers such as yourselves,” Space Bug declares.
Adam turns to Jordan. “I’m going into space again. I left a note for Mom & Dad. I’ll check back in every so often. Okay?”
The siblings share a quick but affectionate hug, and Adam waves goodbye.
The Concordance agents hover with Space Bug on the far side of the Moon.
The wreckage of Blot vessels have been brought here to rot. But things have been found inside of them. Space Bug, kept safe in one of Adam’s force fields, points the way to one such hulk.
Inside, Adam sees what the creature had in mind, and catches his breath.
He hasn’t seen this kind of ship since his first time as Concord. When he first got Sol, aliens had tried to nab him. He was pretty sure they had damaged Sol in the process. But he’d never seen them again.
“Oh, it’s these guys,” Erin observes.
Adam turns sharply. “You recognize this ship?”
The Rainbow Warriors all nod. “We ran into them briefly, when Solaris-Gamma-4 came. Had a bit of a fight, but we won,” Kirk says.
At the Park Tech complex, technicians are looking over the alien vessel. Lisa Park is talking to Adam.
“No, we have no record of this species. If they’ve encountered humans before, nobody took good enough notes for us to hear about it.”
Adam looks at the others. “That means the two times we know they’ve shown up… is when a new Concordance Shard came to Earth…”
By sheerest coincidence, he may have found a lead on his investigation. But he’s starting to wonder whether it’s coincidence or not.
The Rainbow Warriors’ description of the aliens agrees with Adam’s recollection. Kirk dubs them the “Blockheads” for the distinctive shape of their heads - floating cubes seemingly detached from their automaton bodies. But Adam remembers other shapes, like the pyramid-headed leader he briefly saw aboard the ship that attacked him.
Their technology is quite alien, but Tau assures Adam he can operate it. With that assurance, Adam and Keri pile aboard. William and Jaycee, having said their own goodbyes, have arrived and come aboard as well. Adam, concerned that Jordan and Space Bug seem to know each other despite the latter being bubbled, has insisted on bringing the wily creature along rather than letting the bubble stay at his house - especially when he’s off planet.
The ship launches.
Once in space, the echo of Somber appears before Adam.
“Have you decided where you’re going?” they ask.
“I’m following the trail this ship took,” Adam explains. “I want to know if they’re connected to the Concordance Shards going missing. I want to know who’d want to interfere with that. Maybe it’s the Collective? But that doesn’t seem right either.”
The Shard projection nods. “And is that your only goal for now?”
Adam gets a strange, worried look on his face. “I guess I’m also trying to figure out if you’re my teacher, or my enemy.”
For the first time, Adam sees Somber actually smile. “Well done, Adam Amari. That is a good question.”