In the school cafeteria Ace was inspecting what was apparently lunch.
"Is this supposed to be food?" he asked, poking it with his fork.
"This is delicious!" exclaimed Chuck through a mouthful of food. "What are you talking 'bout, Mark?"
Ace glanced between his food and Chuck for several seconds before replying. "What I had for breakfast was food. I don't think this is food."
"I hear ya, man," laughed Brett. He stopped suddenly. "Wait… I think it just moved."
Ace looked outside and saw Mark at the window. What's he doing here? Ace thought. He should be back at the Thunder Tower with Sparx. Then again, something could've gone wrong.
Mark saw he had Ace's attention and gestured for him to come outside before flying off.
"Hi, Mark," said Sam, arriving at the table.
"Hi," replied Ace, "listen, I've gotta go see someone. See ya later."
Sam growled as Ace left. "There he goes again!"
Outside the school 'Mark' landed then morphed into Lady Illusion. She grinned evilly and powered up a crystal ball bomb.
"Look, Mark, I'm sorry I pushed you off the Lightning Flash. I really thought you would've flown."
"Well, apparently not."
"It was pretty funny though," Sparx giggled.
"I'm glad you thought so. Can you just make your move?"
"I can't reach the spinner."
"If you want me to do it, forget it. If you remember the last time I spun it took it five minutes to stop. At least now I know why Ace finds it so hard not to break everything he touches."
"Fine, I'll try." Sparx stretched out and managed to spin it. "Got it. I like this game. Ace usually wants to play chess and stuff, but this is much more exciting. What's it called again?"
"Twister."
"Right, I got left-hand, green."
Sparx attempted to manoeuvre onto a free circle but ended up falling over flat on her back.
"Grr!" Suddenly she noticed that Dirty Rat was sitting up on the roof watching them. "Hey! Get lost, hairy ears!" she pulled out her sword and shot a lightning bolt at the rat, knocking off his hat.
"Eeek!" said Rat in fright. He flew away quickly.
"How long was he sitting there?" asked Mark, standing up.
"Too long. We probably should've noticed him sooner. I wonder how much he's overheard?"
"I have a bad feeling about this. Perhaps we'd better call Ace."
"Hey, kid, where are you?" called Ace. He'd managed to get outside but couldn't seem to find Mark anywhere. "You know if I get caught out here you're the one who's going to get in trouble, not me." Still not seeing him Ace walked towards the corner of the building. "So stop…"
Suddenly a bomb exploded right at Ace's feet. "Woah!" He jumped back out of the way.
"Don't think you're going to escape this alive," said Lady Illusion, stepping around the corner. "That was just a warning shot."
"You're just saying that because you missed," taunted Ace. Then he realised that being mortal and having bombs thrown at him wasn't a good combination. He ducked just as a crystal ball flew over his head and exploded.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Ace said, backing off.
"Give me one good reason." Lady Illusion powered up another bomb.
"Because I'm not who you think I am."
"What?" said Lady Illusion, puzzled. She lowered her bomb slightly.
"Look, that white light at the carnival yesterday. It made me and Mark switch bodies. So he's in my body and I'm in his. If you destroy me you… destroy me."
"You're lying," Lady Illusion said, but she didn't sound entirely convinced.
"No, I'm not."
Lady Illusion finally powered down her crystal ball bomb. "That's really you, Ace? Sorry, I wasn't trying to destroy you. I was trying to get the meddling mortal."
"That's alright. I…" Ace stopped. "Wait a minute. You came here to destroy Mark?!"
"Yes…" said Lady Illusion, only now beginning to realise her mistake. She tried to explain. "He would've only got in the way."
"He would not! Is that why you wanted him destroyed?"
"Ace, I want us to be together! Every time we try he stuffs it up! I thought you would understand. He's just a mortal. Our love is worth his destruction."
"Nothing is worth that, least of all this relationship! You stay away from Mark! If you lay one hand on that kid I'll send you into oblivion myself!!!"
The sound of Ace's phone interrupted them.
"You're only going to make this harder, Ace!" growled Lady Illusion. She morphed out.
Ace sighed and answered the phone. "Hello?"
"Ace, it's Mark. We've got a problem."
"What? What's going on?"
"Rat was here. I don't know if he's realised what's going on but if he has we're going to be in trouble."
"That's not the half of it, kid. Lady Illusion was here trying to destroy me… well, you actually."
"Why?! What did I do?"
"She said you were getting in the way of… various things. Apparently she thought she could go behind my back and get rid of you."
"I hate to say I told you so… " muttered Sparx, who had been listening in.
"Sparx, I can hear you," groaned Ace.
"That makes things worse," continued Mark. "Even if Rat hasn't worked out what's going on Lady Illusion will know."
"Yeah, and I don't think she'll have any problem destroying you either. Not that I can help much as you would know."
"Well, what are we going to do? I can't defeat them. Maybe I should go ask Random Virus to help."
"That won't be easy…"
"It's better than nothing."
"Right, just be careful. See ya kid."
"Random Virus!?" Where are you? We need to talk!" Mark called into the junkyard.
Sparx had flown Mark to the junkyard on the Lightning Flash and now they were trying to locate Random Virus. The junkyard was eerily quiet. Storm clouds were brewing overhead and the gloom they cast, along with the thunder in the distance, only made it seem spookier.
"Careful, Mark," said Sparx. "Somehow I don't think this is going to be easy."
"I've got him to help me before. I should be able to do it again."
"Don't think because you've done it once it'll work the same again. Something's really wrong with that rust bucket, don't expect him to play by any rules."
"Right…" said Mark. "Random! Where is he? I hope he's not out destroying something."
"Mark! Watch out!" yelled Sparx suddenly.
Mark looked up to see the arm of a rusty, old crane swinging through the air, straight towards him. He hit the dirt as it flew over his head.
"Cowards!" yelled Random Virus as he screeched around the corner of a pile of junk.
"Yeah, and I suppose attacking someone from behind and not even doing it yourself doesn't count!" retaliated Sparx.
"You are weak! You deserve to be destroyed!"
"Look, Random," said Mark getting up off the ground, "we need your help."
"Help is for weaklings and cowards!" growled Random Virus closing in on Mark.
It was now that Mark wished he had learnt to fly. But since that wasn't an option he just stood his ground. It probably wasn't the smartest strategy, but he felt taller in Ace's body.
Sparx saw what he was doing and jumped off the Lightning Flash beside him. "Hope this works, kid," she said.
Random Virus got within two feet of them. "Why don't you run!?" he growled when they didn't move.
"We're not going without your help," said Mark, trying to keep his voice form shaking. He knew that Random could quite easily destroy him before he even had a chance to react.
Random Virus just stood there waiting for them to do something. He couldn't seem to attack them when they were showing no sign of being afraid or of even doing anything. In his state of confusion his good side made a grab for control.
Sparx and Mark jumped as the cars in the junkyard suddenly went haywire. It sort of messed up their strategy but Random Virus was too busy with another battle.
"Stop it!" he growled. "What's going on? Ace?"
"Not quite…" said Mark.
"What? Did I miss something more than usual?"
"We've got a problem," Sparx explained. "Something happened at the Carnival and now Ace and Mark have switched bodies. So that's Mark."
"And we need your help," Mark continued. "I don't make a very good superhero."
"Well, you've got some big shoes to fill, kid. But I'm not sure you want my help."
"Ace trusts you," pointed out Mark.
"Ace doesn't know me as well as he used to."
"Look, Random," said Sparx, "we'll probably end up destroyed anyway if you don't help. You can't just hide in the junkyard."
Random looked down at the ground. "You can't hide from yourself." He paused for a second. "Get out of here."
"What?" asked Mark, confused.
Sparx saw that the cars had started up again. "Mark, I think we'd better go."
"But… we need his help."
"Well, I don't think we're getting it today. Lightning Flash! To me!" Sparx grabbed Mark by the collar and practically dragged him onto the machine.
"That really didn't go well," said Mark once they had flown away from the junkyard.
"Congratulations! You win the understatement of the week award!"
"Sparx."
"Sorry."
"What do we do now?"
"Now? We get ready to kick some bad guy butt."