Back at the school, Ace was in science class. Mr Cheseborough was going on about how hard the test he was about to hand out was. And also how important it was.

"This is great…" said Ace sarcastically. He was just about to further mess up Mark's life, considering how much the teacher was going on about the importance of the test. Ace knew he'd probably have no idea what any of the questions were about. He smacked himself in the head with one of his books. "Ow…" He'd forgotten about the pain thing again.

"Dude, what's up with you?" asked Chuck from beside him. "You've been acting strange all day."

"You have no idea."

"Don't worry about the test though. Cheesy will fail everyone anyway."

"That seems a bit unfair."

"Since when is he fair?"

"Alright all you horrible, little people," said Mr Cheseborough, "test conditions start now. If you have any questions – too bad, you should've studied. As soon as you get your papers you can start. You'll need all the time you can get."

The class let out a collective groan.

Ace got his paper and made sure he remembered to put Mark's name on it. At least he'd get that question right. Then he looked at the subject of the paper. He smiled.

"Boss, they were acting really strange," explained the rat. "They had these cardboard cut outs of us and they were using them as targets, or something."

"What!?" growled Lord Fear. "How dare they! They will pay dearly for this!"

"That's not the only thing, boss. Ace wasn't hitting them half the time. I thought he was a better shot than that."

"Perhaps something's wrong," said Lord Fear. "Maybe this is a good chance to attack."

"Or it could be a trap, my lord," offered Staff.

"Believe me, it is no trap."

Lord Fear turned around to find that Lady Illusion had appeared. "Really, my lady. And why is that?"

Lady Illusion explained what she had found out.

"This is a perfect opportunity!" said Lord Fear. "We'll be able to destroy both his sidekicks and he will be powerless to stop us! Come my evils. We're going to pay them a little visit."

Science class was over and Ace figured he'd better get down to the Thunder Tower, even if he couldn't do much to help. He opened his locker and threw his books in before he left and was about to do so when Sam appeared.

"Hey, Mark."

"Oh, hi Sam."

"I was just wondering if you wanted to come and get some pizza."

"Sorry, I can't," said Ace shutting the locker door. "I've got to get somewhere."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Don't you always? Mark, what is it with you? You're always running off somewhere."

"Hey, it's… well, it's really important, Ok?"

"Uh-huh. You going to tell me what's so important?"

Ace paused. "… I can't."

"Figured as much." She walked off.

Ace stared after her for a moment, thinking. Then he decided he'd better get going. He got outside and then realised it was raining.

"Oh great! I can't even fly there!" Ace groaned. "No, I get stuck with the bike!" But he knew he had to get to the Thunder Tower. So he got on the bike and wobbled off down the street.

Just then a car drove past. As it did it raced through a puddle, spraying water all over Ace.

"Ha! Take that you little brat!" It was the driver Ace had swerved in front of that morning.

Ace rolled to a stop and took his helmet off to shake out the water. "Do kids get any respect?" he wondered.

He looked up at the storm clouds, watched the lightning flash across them, followed a few seconds later by a rumble of thunder. Right now Ace thought it would be easier being a Lightning Knight. Especially after experiencing all the stuff that Mark had to put up with every day.

At least now Ace had an idea why Mark didn't like being called a Lightning Knight. He didn't feel like he could be much of one at the moment either. How was he supposed to help Mark and Sparx anyway? The he remembered something Mark had said. Ace, you don't need superpowers to save someone. He'd been right too. Mark always seemed to find a way to help no matter what.

And so can I thought Ace. He put back on his helmet and got back on the bike. "The fight's not over, Fear!" Ace raced off towards the Thunder Tower.

"Sparx, I'm not sure if we can pull this off," said Mark. He and Sparx were back at the Thunder Tower, waiting for the evils to arrive, as they were sure they would.

"Why not?" asked Sparx. She swung her sword over her head, practicing.

"I'm not a Lightning Knight. I can't even shoot straight."

Sparx stopped and looked at him. "Since when does that define a Lightning Knight?"

"Sparx! How many times do I have to tell you guys? I'm not a Lightning Knight."

"Whatever! That doesn't change the fact that Lord Fear is coming and we have to stop him."

"What if we can't?"

"Don't be so negative. We will."

"I'm being realistic."

Sparx rolled her eyes. "Mark."

"Yeah."

"Just shut up and shoot at the bad guys!"

Mark shut up.

"Look," continued Sparx, "sorry. I shouldn't have said that. But seriously, just shoot at them."

"You still didn't answer my question."

"What?"

"What if we can't beat them?"

"You don't want to know the answer to that. Losing isn't an option."

"Right."

Suddenly Lord Fear appeared in the doorway. "Anyone home?" he asked then shot a bolt of energy at Mark.

Sparx dodged in front of him and deflected the energy into the roof with the Sword of Jacob.

"Well," continued Lord Fear, "what have we here? Two little sidekicks and no superhero to save them."

Dirty Rat and Lady Illusion followed him into the Thunder Tower.

"You only brought these two?" asked Sparx. "I think you're being a little overconfident."

"You can talk," retaliated Lord Fear. "What happened to the standard insult?"

"I thought I'd save it for when we beat you."

"I wouldn't count on it."

Mark came and stood beside Sparx. "At least we can count."

Lord Fear growled angrily. "You're going to regret this!" He powered up Staff Head.

"Mark."

"Yeah."

"This is the part where you DUCK!"

A bolt of energy flew over their heads.

Sparx deflected the next one with her sword.

Lady Illusion powered up a crystal ball and used it to separate Mark and Sparx.

"Mark, where are you?" called Sparx through the smoke. There was no way she was going to let Lord Fear get him.

"You foolish mortal!" said Lord Fear, moving in on Mark. "There's no way you can stand against us."

"Not quite." Mark fired a lightning bolt at Lord Fear. It just barely missed him.

Lord Fear looked startled.

"What's going on with you and Ace?" Lady Illusion growled at Sparx.

"What!?"

Lady Illusion powered up a bomb and threw it. "You know what I mean."

"Oh, for crying out loud!" Sparx destroyed the bomb and then fired a lightning bolt.

Lady Illusion dodged it.

Ace rode up to the Thunder Tower and screeched to a halt. He hoped all the noise he was now hearing was just thunder and was not coming from inside.

He peered in the door and had to jump out of the way to avoid a stray crystal bomb.

Lord Fear saw him. "Well if it isn't Ace Lightning!" He turned around and powered up Staff. He was about to shoot when Mark fired a bolt of lightning into Staff, throwing off Lord Fear's aim. The energy hit the rat, who was hovering around.

"Aiyee!" squealed Rat as he disappeared.

"Wow! It went where I wanted it to!"

"Nice shot, kid!" said Ace.

"But it'll be his last!" laughed Lord Fear, firing a bolt of energy into Mark and sending him skidding across the floor.

"Mark!" called Ace. He tried to help but had to hide behind the desk as a crystal ball exploded to close for comfort.

"Darn!" said Sparx, realising she had been distracted by Lady Illusion. "Hang on Mark!"

Suddenly Lady Illusion lunged at her, morphing into a tiger in mid-air. She landed on Sparx, pinning her to the ground and knocking her sword out of reach.

"Oh-oh," said Sparx. "Someone's been watching too much Discovery Channel."

Lady Illusion growled back.

Ace looked at the telescope in the middle of the observatory. Lord Fear was standing right next to the end of it. Ace got an idea. He quickly ran over to a control panel and pressed some buttons.

"Say good-bye you meddling mortal!" said Lord Fear, pointing Staff at Mark.

Suddenly the telescope swung around 180 degrees. The end pointing up came downwards and knocked Lord Fear into the wall.

"What the!!!"

"Thanks Ace."

"No problem, kid."

"Um, guys," called Sparx. "A little help here…"

"Right, sorry." Mark shot a bolt of lightning at Lady Illusion. It hit about 2 feet away from her. "Oh, no. I missed."

Lady Illusion turned towards Mark and moved closer, roaring angrily.

"Um, Ace… I think I'm running out of power. What do I do?"

"Try moving," Ace called from behind the controls.

"What?"

"Move before she bites your head off."

"Okay…" Mark began to back away.

Lady Illusion stalked after him.

Sparx waited until Lady Illusion was distracted then crawled out from under her and grabbed the Sword of Jacob. "Heads up, fleabag." She shot a lightning bolt into Lady Illusion, who morphed back.

"My lord, this doesn't seem to be going as planned," pointed out Staff Head.

"Say what?" asked Lord Fear still a bit dazed.

"I think we'd better leave," said Lady Illusion. She'd backed into the wall after being shot at by Sparx.

"I can't see how we lost to a mere mortal and this sidekick," growled Lord Fear getting up off the ground.

"Don't underestimate the sidekicks," grinned Sparx. She pointed her sword at them. "So are you going to leave, or what?"

"You won't be so lucky next time!" said Lord Fear. "Next time we'll be prepared to destroy you!" He left with Staff and Lady Illusion.

"Nice job, you two," said Ace. "I couldn't have done it better myself."

"They'll be back again, won't they?" said Mark.

"Ah… yeah."

Mark paused for a second. "Ace… I don't know if I can do this. I thought it was hard enough just helping you guys but this is impossible."

"Come on, kid. You did pretty good."

"Ace! I fluked it. I have no idea how I managed to hit Lord Fear. I can't fly at all. And Random Virus is just… I don't know. He's so unpredictable and just plain messed up. I don't know what I'd do if Chuck or Sam or any of my friends ended up like that."

Ace looked at the ground. "Well, if it's any consolation… your life isn't as easy as I thought either."

"Perhaps we need to find a way to fix this," said Sparx after she saw no one was saying anything. "Otherwise we're all done for."

"I'd better power up first," said Mark. "I think my power's running low."

As if hearing him a bolt of lightning from the overhead thunderstorm shot down through the roof and hit the telescope. Mark and Ace were standing right next to it and the lightning jumped to the amulet hanging around Ace's neck. For the second time they were thrown to the floor by a massive burst of energy.

"Are you two okay?" asked Sparx when the afterimage had cleared from her eyes.

"I think so… Hey! I'm me again!" said Ace happily. "Mark, we're back to normal."

"Ow…" said Mark.

"You okay, kid?"

"I just got hit by lightning. That hurts you know."

"Oh."

Mark sat up. "That was interesting… I hope it never happens again."

"Yeah, you said it, kid."

"And today, a strange find in space. Two astronauts have found what appears to be a message from an alien intelligence. Experts are currently trying to decipher the alien code but as yet are unable to figure out how to even unload the data. Despite intensive scanning they haven't worked out how to operate the device which appears to be a round, rubber sphere of some sort. More on this later. In other news…" droned the TV in the background.

"So, Ace," said Sparx. "What was it like being mortal for a day?"

"Harder than you'd think."

"Yeah."

"Well, it was only for a day. I suppose it was kind of fun. Except that test I did for Mark was really weird."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know. It was just… really stupid questions."

"Like what?"

"Mr Hollander," said Mr Cheseborough. "I'm very surprised at your work!"

"In what way, sir?" asked Mark. His mum was going to kill him.

"I don't know how you did it. I know you cheated. But I don't know how!" He threw Mark's test paper down on his desk. "I dropped your grade because you showed virtually no working out."

Mark picked it up and stared at the grade in the corner. It was an A minus.

"Dude," said Chuck, "and you were freaking out! Ha!"

"He got an A minus?" wondered Mark. Then he remembered what the test had been about. He checked it on the top of the paper. The test had been about electricity.

"Well, Pete, now Ace does understand what I have to go through. But it isn't easy being a superhero either, mate. I guess I never thought that maybe I'm not the only one who's got to put up with this game. Everyone always thinks the grass is going to be greener on the other side. But it's not. I suppose we've just got to stick with what we've got. 'Cause no one else can."