Downstairs, Mark was fast losing his chances of getting a second helping of dinner, mostly because Chuck was on thirds. Though that probably wouldn't have bothered him particularly as he'd hardly eaten anything on his plate and didn't look like he was going to.

"Mark, eat your dinner," said Fiona automatically.

There was a knock at the front door.

"I'll get it!" said Mark, nearly knocking over his chair. He knew his parents would probably start probing for information in a minute.

Mark rushed to the door and opened it. It was Kat.

"Hi, Mark."

Mark went to say 'hi' back, but then suddenly remembered Kat was his girlfriend and perhaps he should say something else. Then he realised while pondering this he'd just been staring at her, opened mouthed, for the past three seconds.

"Mark… hello?"

"Ah, hi," Mark finally said, deciding 'hi' was fine to say after all. "You want to come in."

"Not really. I'm worried about Sparx."

"Why? What's happened?"

"She was helping me look for my dog. I wanted to look in the junkyard for it but she wouldn't let me and then she went in. Julie came out a few minutes later but Sparx hasn't."

"How long ago was that?"

"A few hours."

"That's not good."

"Yeah, that's why I came and told you."

"Right, I'll go get Ace. He's upstairs. We'll go and see if she's alright."

Mark and Kat went inside.

"Mum, Dad, I'm going out!" yelled Mark as he ran upstairs.

"What about your dinner…" said Fiona, but trailed off when she realised most of it was gone. She was pretty sure there had been more on Mark's plate when he'd left the table.

"Ace, we've got a problem," said Mark as he opened the door to his bedroom.

Ace didn't seem to have heard him and was just staring at the computer screen, seemingly lost in thought.

"Ace?"

"Yeah?"

"What's wrong? Are you stuck or something?"

"You could say that," replied Ace, "but I did find out what happened to Random Virus."

"Great, we'll probably need that. Sparx went chasing Kat's dog into the junkyard and Kat didn't see her come out."

"Trust Sparx," grumbled Ace, annoyed at having to once again go and rescue her. "But I doubt this will help."

"Why not? If you know how it happened, can't you figure out how to undo it?

"I wish. But I don't think it can be undone. I did find out who did it to him, but the only thing that sort of information is good for is revenge."

"I wouldn't have thought revenge was something a lightning knight would consider," said Mark cautiously.

"It's not," said Ace, looking up at Mark with a slightly hurt expression. "But that didn't stop Random from destroying him outright. Mech messed him up, but he would know how to fix him. Random destroyed any hope of that."

After an uncomfortable silence Mark said: "We need to go help Sparx…"

"Since getting human emotions…" Ace blurted out, then stopped short.

"It's ok, I'm listening," Mark prompted.

Ace continued more slowly. "It's getting harder for me to trust him. I know I should. It's just some of the things he does, a lightning knight's not supposed to do. Random would never have done. I know he's got a problem, and he's asked me to save him. But I can't. Instead… instead I just turned on him like I didn't even care he'd tried to get it right. Some friend I am."

"Hey, so you messed up once. Big deal. Friends mess up all the time; it doesn't mean they're not a good friend. You've been up here all day trying to help Random. That tells me you're a good friend. All you can do is try, Ace."

"What if trying's not good enough?"

Mark didn't have an answer for that, at least not anything encouraging.

"C'mon, kid. Sparx probably needs us. I'll meet you at the junkyard."

"Yeah, alright," Mark replied, defeated.

Ace flew out the window and Mark went back downstairs.

"Chuck! We're going."

"Imfooodft!" replied Chuck.

"Kat, perhaps you should wait here…"

"Oh, no. Sparx is my friend too."

"It could be dangerous," Mark explained, lowering his voice.

"Yeah, I already got that from Sparx. This time, you go, I go."

"Alright then. But we have to be careful. Chuck, c'mon!"

Chuck grabbed the last of his food off his plate and ran out after Mark and Kat.

"Bye Mr and Mrs Hollander!" called out Kat.

"Where do you suppose they're going?" Simon asked his wife.

Fiona shrugged. "They're teenagers, Simon. They've probably just remembered about a party or something. Mark has his phone anyway."

"Oh, good." Simon looked at the empty serving dish. "I only got one piece of chicken…" he said sadly.