The human rocket flew fast and high, hooting with the power it made him feel. Indigo Lanterns were on his tail, using light constructs to try and catch him. But Sam zigged and he zagged to evade his assailants.

"Wow I am so good at- eep!" Sam yelps as an Indigo construct chain latches onto his ankle and begins to pull him back. He swerves towards the stone floor below but he wasn't going to let that be the end of him.

Boosting up his speed, Sam veers around a sharp corner and causes his assailant to slam into the wall. The chain construct evaporates and soon his leg is free. "That's one point for Nova and zero points for the Indigo Tribe!" Sam quips, giving a small wave to the poor sap who tried to yank him. He puts his focus back on the environment in front of him and navigates through as many rooms as he could. Though, after a while of not finding it, Sam began to give up.

"Come on, come on… if I were a power stone, where would I hide?" Sam asks himself before coming to a screeching halt. If he were a power stone in someone's possession, he wouldn't be in some random room. If the Indigo Lanterns were smart, they wouldn't even keep it in a heavily guarded room. "That's it!" Sam begins to make a hasty backtrack towards where he started. Of course, Indigo Lanterns were still on him, but this time he was coming straight toward them. So, Sam braced his arms into an "X" shape and plowed through them like bowling pins.

"Dad!" Sam shouts as he makes it back into the throne room.

"Sam!"

Hal throws aside an Indigo Lantern with a construct hand and looks towards his son expectantly. "Did you get it? Did you get the stone?" he asks, expecting for a positive answer. But just as Sam shook his head, his heart sunk.

"Dad, it's in her staff!" Sam informs, pointing to where Indigo-1 was chaining up Richard with her light constructs.

Hal raises a brow, "What?"

"Trust me!" Sam locks eyes with his father and dips his head. "I'm going to get it."

"Sam wait-!" Hal begins to protest. Indigo-1 was a very powerful Lantern. Even if she had a soft spot for children, there's no telling what'll happen to Sam if he gets in her crossfire. But this was his moment. Sam's adventure had just begun and he was going to prove his worth.

"Just trust me!" Sam reassured as he charged himself up for an attack. He zooms over with the intent of snatching up Indigo-1's staff and getting it far enough from her so she can't use it. "Richard, get ready!" Sam calls out as he gets close enough. The boy successfully knocks the staff out of her hands which make the constructs to dissipate, essentially freeing Richard. Sam grabs the staff before it could clatter onto the floor with a triumphant grin. "I got it, I got-"

Indigo-1 holds out her palm and begins to call the staff back to her. Unlike most Lanterns, she kept her ring inside the space in her staff, enabling her to call for it whenever she wanted to. Just one problem though. It came with a teenager attached. Sam fought against the pull, tightening his grip around the staff. He jostled it every which way and every which way he made no progress. But good old Richard Rider came in for the save.

Holding a loose stone in the grip of his hand, Richard striked Indigo-1 across the back of her head. This caused her to lose focus and thus, letting Sam have the staff. The woman doubles over and rests on her knees as Sam dug for the power stone in the staff's crevice. He also happens to brush against Indigo-1's power ring but decides not to meddle.

"Aha!" Sam explaims as his hand curves around the familiar shape. "Heads up Rider, incoming!" He throws the power stone in Richard's direction and the man reaches up to receive it.

Almost instantly Richard crackled with energy as he filled up with the Nova force once more. The Nova Prime makes no haste and flies up into the air with his regained ability. "Yes! Finally! No more playing around…" He charges up powerful energy attacks that send Indigo Lanterns flying. "C'mon fellas! We've got what we came for so let's blow this grape flavored popsicle stand!"

Sam gives Richard a questioning look. "Grape flavored? Really?"

"Shut up and let's go." Richard instructs, blazing away a path. He's got the space stone so all they need to do is get out of there. Or else, they'll be teleporting with a bunch of disgruntled Indigo Lanterns.

Hal and Sam follow his lead with the Green Lantern covering the back. He pushes any stragglers behind with a construct snowmobile until it appears they were no longer being followed.

"I wonder what they wanted with you." Hal peruses as the group begins to slow down. He directed the statement towards Richard but he got nothing in response. "I mean, Indigo Lanterns only want to correct the morally black or grey so to speak." Hal continues. "If we pictured morality as black and white."

"Well isn't that strange?" Richard remarks. "I don't really know what that has to do with me." He turns away and brings out the space stone to use it.

"Are you safe for my boy to be around?" Hal asks bluntly, his eyes boring into the back of Richard's helmet.

"Dad!" Sam protests. They've been through this before when they first picked up Richard. "We can't right now! We have other stones to collect!"

Hal sighs. "Alright, but I'm warning you Richards. If I find out-"

"Please." Richard cranes his head back to look at Hal. "Sometimes you have to do dirty work to be the hero. At least where I'm from, that's how things work. You can't tell me that isn't exactly how you operate either." The Nova Prime generally kept the specifics to himself but he knew he wasn't a bad guy. Nor was he an anti-hero or whatever the kids were calling it these days.

Hal runs a shamed hand through his hair. "You're right. Where are we going next?"

"I remember Kyle telling me that the Blue Lanterns have the Eye of Agameme." Sam supplies, eager to be of some help.

"Agamotto." Richard corrects. "And you're right, that's what keeps the time stone."

"Off to see Saint Walker it is." Sam says as his stomach gives a loud growl. "Possibly after we eat something. Yeesh, how long has it been?"

Sam longed for a rest despite his excitement to keep going. The space stone must've felt Sam's longing too because it teleports from Richard's palm into his. "Hey, what d'you suppose this means?" Sam inquires. In response the stone takes the three of them to the place Sam's subconscious was thinking of.

Home.

The two men and the boy get sporadically 'ported into the living room of the Jordan house. It was midday in Coast City and much to Carol's surprise, it was not when she was expecting her husband and son to return. To her they've been gone for about two days and when she heard that Sam hadn't eaten for about a whole day, she gave Hal an earful and began to prepare a meal.

"Well I certainly wasn't expecting this." Richard remarks, taking off his helmet so he could politely greet Carol. "Richard." he says, holding out a hand.

Carol shook his hand before going to wash it. No need to contaminate the food with space bacteria. "Carol."

"Danvers?"

Carol softly shakes her head and dries her hand on a towel. "Ferris. Ferris-Jordan. Hal's my husband and Sam is my son."

"Ohh." Richard nods in understanding. He recalls that neither of Sam's actual parents were present in reality and had been replaced with these two. Once again, a hard lump lodges into his throat. He never thought he'd be prepared to break the news to the current Jordan household. They would be heartbroken to find out that they aren't even family at all. By the least, when everything was fixed, Hal and Carol would still have each other but Sam would be long gone with his rightful mother, and hopefully if he was lucky, his father too.

"Are you okay?" Carol asks. "You look like you need some water." She gives him a worried expression that just tugs on Richard's heartstrings even further. "Oh um, yes. I'd like that, thank you." he replies.

"Sam sweetie?"

Sam goes over to the cabinet and fetches a glass, "I got it mom."

"So…" Carol throws a glance towards her son. "Want to tell me about that new look of yours?"

Secretly, he hoped she would ask that. He smiles and turns around to show off his black ops Nova corps uniform. Then he regails upon her the entire story so far. Though she's not as surprised as any other woman would be. Carol was used to space and time shenanigans, being a Violet Lantern and all. Something still rubbed her the wrong way about it though.

"The universe overlapping, huh? I wonder what caused it." she comments as she sets some rice to cook.

Richard shrugs. "Even I don't know." The whole phenomenon was a curious case but Richard had a sort of clarity to see himself through it. Now Sam was beginning to share that clarity too. But how exactly the phenomenon was caused was a mystery to him. He doubted that Sam would know or else he'd tell him by now so they'll just have to wait. Or perhaps, they'll never know at all. Only time will tell.