Sam jerked awake at the sound of the alarm. He found himself sitting on top of a pile of books in his closet. That was strange. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep in the nurse's office in seventh period. Also, even though he had just woken up, it seemed that his muscles were even more tired, but he'd have to figure it out later. Right now he was needed on a mission.

Nova watched the city disappear beneath him as he rocketed toward the location of his teammates. He arrived just in time, too, saving White Tiger from a blow from the back from one of the Furious Four, The Wizard if he remembered correctly.

"Nova, you're late!" White Tiger yelled at him.

"Sorry, I overslept," Nova told her while zapping The Wizard.

"Overslept? But, you were awake when we left!"

"No I wasn't. I woke up in my closet to the alarm."

"That's not possible; you were just putting the books back. There's no way for you to have been asleep."

"Wait, did I do my homework all at once earlier?"

"Yeah, don't you remember?" Nova slapped his forehead in realization at her words.

"Of course, that must be it!" Nova said just before he was hit from behind by a rather large opponent. Scrambling back to his feet, Nova whirled to face… well; he didn't really know this one.

"Richard Rider! After years I have finally found you!" The strange enemy exclaimed.

"Um… Are you talking to me?" Nova asked the reptilian man in front of him. He was lean, with green skin, about 20 inches in height. Nova had never seen him before in his life.

"Of course! Are you really so proud as to pretend not to remember me? I am the Sphinx, and I will finally destroy you, Richard Rider!"

"Look," Nova began to back away from the strange… whatever he had called himself, "I don't know if you haven't been around for awhile, but I don't think he's alive anymore. He was my predecessor."

"I will not fall for your tricks, Richard Rider! I can tell by your powers! They come from the Nova Force, and you have the Xandarian Worldmind inside of you!"

"I don't know who you even are!" Nova flew back, blasting the odd opponent with an energy blast. A sudden drowsiness caused Nova to feel like he suddenly needed sleep. Unable to stop the drowsy feeling, Sam fell asleep…

Sam tumbled toward the ground, and Spiderman swung to catch him, but the superhero jerked out of his fall, zooming back to roundhouse kick the strange villain that had started attacking him. He easily knocked the villain out, turning in time to save Powerman from an attack from behind by Thundra. It seemed to the others that his abilities to use his powers had increased greatly, and before they knew it, the villains were captured and turned over to SHEILD.