Episode tagline (for TV listings): "When a new hero emerges with a magical pen, Courtney races to train him before Cindy unleashes an undead monster on Homecoming Night."

Cindy Burman (still posing as "Reformed") reveals she knew about Jakeem all along. She offers the JSA a deal: help her steal the Thunderbolt's power for herself, and she'll reveal the ISA's real final weapon — a mind-controlled Solomon Grundy , now buried under the football field. Courtney refuses. Cindy laughs. Then she clicks a remote. Grundy's massive green hand bursts through the 50-yard line.

Meanwhile, Yolanda (Wildcat) refuses to put on the suit again, haunted by Brainwave's words: "You're a killer. Just like us." Beth (Mid-Nite) discovers a hidden ISA log — Project Lazarus — mentioning a "backup host" for Eclipso's black diamond. Rick (Hourman) starts secretly building a Hourglass amplifier in his garage, pushing his body to dangerous limits.

The signal leads to a teenage boy named Jakeem Thunder — a sarcastic, comic-book-loving fast-food worker who found a strange pen in the rubble of the ISA hideout. When Courtney tries to recruit him, he accidentally whispers "So Kool" — summoning a five-foot-tall, blue-skinned, cigar-chomping genie named Johnny Thunderbolt , who promptly freezes half the town in glittering amber.

One week after the Battle of the ISA headquarters, Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl) patrols a suspiciously quiet Blue Valley. No villains. No Injustice Society. Just potholes and homework. Pat Dugan worries about "the quiet before the storm." But Courtney is obsessed with a new mystery: a second Cosmic Staff signal, buried deep beneath the old drive-in movie theater.