The team stared at Sam. He was sleeping on the floor of the break room, snoring loudly. They really had no idea what to do. He seemed to be acting even stranger than usual this week, and it was starting to bother them. Even though he being stronger and having more rational thought wasn't all that bad, they found they actually missed his usual self.

Waking blearily, Sam looked around while he sat up. That was odd. The last thing he remembered was falling asleep while battling some disgruntled alien that had known his prediseccor. Now he was in the break room?

Feeling more than a little disoriented, Sam shook his head.

"Um, Sam?" Ava stepped closer to her slightly younger teammate. Sam was actually the youngest on the team. He had also been the first to be picked up by SHEILD, which was probably why he was so sure he should be team leader.

"Oh, hey, Ava. Do you have any idea how I got here?"

"You flew here from the battle. You took out all the villains by yourself. Don't you remember?"

"No… Oh crap!" Sam jerked to his feet.

"What, Sam?"

"I just remembered something very important about the guy who gave me this helmet. I'll see you later!" Sam jerked his helmet on, zipping out of the Helicarier toward a graveyard on the other side of town.

%%%%%%

Sam sat in front of the gravestone marked Richard Rider. He was trying desperately to draw up the memories of the night he had gotten his powers…

It was raining, and a streak of light flashed through the sky. Sam felt the ground shake near him, and ran into the forest. The crash had been very close. He found a spaceship in a crater. He pushed aside some of the rubble to find a man, brutally injured. Sam stared at him with wide eyes. The man turned to him and with much effort, pulled off his helmet and handed it to the young boy.

"Take it, and do great things, you are Nova," the man said in a hoarse voice. He coughed, blood spilling onto his suit. "The Worldmind will help you, it lives inside that helmet." The man coughed again, falling still, his eyes closing.

"M- Mister?" Sam said, his voice shaking. He grabbed the man's shoulder, yanking him back and forth violently. "Wake up. Wake up!" Sam collapsed on the ground, stunned. A voice poured into his mind, smooth and silky, with many depths to it, as if a thousand voices in one.

"Hello, young hero."

Sam left his retrieve, and looked around him. He wondered if he could speak to this Worldmind thingy-mawhatsit… He tried calling inside his head, to no avail. Maybe it required something more than that, but what he didn't know.

Sam decided to pursue this somewhere else, the graveyard being rather creepy to him. Pulling on his helmet, Sam flew toward his favorite spot in the city. It was the top of a rather tall building, just a bit shorter than your average skyscraper. He loved to sit on the roof, swinging his legs over the edge while watching the crowd gather. For some reason they always thought he was going to jump, but that didn't make any sense. Sure, a lot of people had, but you'd think that they'd get the picture by now. After all, he was up there almost everyday. Sam lay down on the rough rooftop, looking at the sky. He felt rather tired, but put sleep out of his mind. After all, he had to figure out how to talk to that Worldmind thingamajig.