A.N- I wrote chapter eight. And it has been sitting on my laptop hard drive for the better part of five months. And I have tried to edit it, but short of hitting delete and a complete rewrite that I have no enthusiasm for- this will still fall short of what I can now do. I apologize, but it’s this or waiting another year.

Oh yeah I don’t own Ace Lightning, so don’t sue me. And I like my pen name and refuse to change it…its fine for every other fandom. So feel free to nominate an alternative AL suitable first name for the OC and I’ll change it with edits.

Chapter Eight

The Alternate Level - Part One

Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy.

F. Scott Fitzgerald

Mark looked around, intently. His blonde hair was spiked black and blue, his features cold and dark.

“Come out Wayne, classmates shouldn’t hide mate”

“At least I’m a hero and not some evil freak on a bent power trip” Wayne stood with no weapon but his own fists. Then Mark Hollander smiled. It was a cold smile that was made worse by the way it promised pain and torment. He would enjoy this.

As if suddenly awake, Mark could feel the telltale chill down his spine and the exhaustion that followed these ‘dreams’. But this dream… nightmare hadn’t made much sense. It didn’t feel like the usual future ‘visions’ it had felt different than that. More like a present. He was sitting next Chuck who was still engrossed in what had to be close to the end of the four hour Japanese cartoon movie. Mark adjusted his position, luck that Chuck had been too enthralled in the film to notice that he had his eyes closed.

Maybe it had been just a dream. Maybe, but considering his last one had almost been his own game over for him, it didn’t hurt to be careful.

“How about this one” Heather said smugly.

Kat looked at the top with a look of revulsion, her once blonde hair now cut short and black. Her taste had changed a lot since coming to this town and was starting to feel more her own than the off the magazine looks she had gone with before. Kat was constantly changing her look and up for new things.

But it did not mean she wore the top Heather was holding up. While with its dark blue color and the straps it was decent, it was too little girl feminine for Kat’s taste.

And Heather knew it.

Sam took a glance at her watch at this rate they were going to be here forever, it was almost closing time for the shop in question and yet both acted as if there was more than enough time. And Kat and Heather had been at each other all afternoon. And there was despite the fact it was a Saturday, a curfew in which Sam had to return before getting grounded.

Standing out of the line of fire Sam sighed and she frowned noting that Allison was nowhere to be seen in the small clothing store which meant she was lost somewhere in the mall.

Sam went to tell the other two but they were still bickering. So Sam walked out of the store looking in all directions… that girl had to be somewhere and adjusting her handbag she set off quickly.

She found Allison after a few minutes, while the girl was somehow looking completely normal somehow had this way of not blending in.

Allison was intently caught up in something as she walked past a water display which had fish swimming around, decoration and she was frowning when she saw Sam. “Samantha?”

Bracing herself for one of the usual questions Sam nodded resigned. “Yes?”

“I saw a visual device-“

“A television”

Allison paused and then continued. “Right, on the television they were showing sparring, but it did not seem to be for training, it seemed to be for ‘entertainment’ by causing the other harm- how is hurting someone amusing?”

Thinking for a moment Sam finally got it. “Wrestling, uh that’s kind of a sport and some people enjoy watching that type of thing- well I think it’s stupid…” Sam said as she looking into the aquarium, odd there was something shining in one of the little fish houses, a skull. Looking closer, Sam’s eyes widened.

There was a piece of the amulet in there… that was weird, she thought they were meant to be all over the town and it made sense but it looked like the piece that was meant to be Lord Fear’s. Allison catching Sam’s interest looked to where Sam was.

“We should… where is it?” Sam and Allison both looked where there had appeared to be a piece of the amulet… it was gone. Allison frowned as a sudden flash of dark emotion went down her spine…

A blast of green energy slammed Allison into a vending machine and there was an evil laugh as the skeletal Lord Fear rounded the corner. “Oh I do so love a good entrance”

“You do indeed my lord, and might I say what an entrance this is”

Digging into her bag to find her cell, Sam ducked a stream of green aimed at her. Pigface was distracted mid lunge from attacking by all the mall trash cans. They contained so much half eaten food. The overgrown pig was then zapped by Fear in the behind.

“Pigface just wants to eat”

Fear glared. “Unless you destroy them you will never eat again, now get on with it you overstuffed pig!”

Looking at Sam quickly, both girls ran out of the room as fast as they could and they were followed closely by Lord Fear.

“In here” Sam said to Allison and they ran into the mall cinema complex and almost ran over the security guard who held them by the arm. “And to think only one of you are blonde” Running past him- like that wasn’t obvious.

Sam groaned, and Allison tried to wrench her arm out of his grasp. “This is an emergency- we are trying to run from one of the most powerful evils from the sixth dimension”

Amused, the middle aged security guard looked at her. “Like I haven’t heard that one before” God damn video game geeks-

A blast of green energy hit the popcorn stand and the popcorn sprayed everywhere. The guard went white and started swallowing as Pigface darted forth more intent on attacking the popcorn rather than anything else. Fear shot his minion in the behind again, infuriated. The guard screamed and almost tripped as he ran out of there.

Sam grabbed Allison by the jacket and ran into one of the theatres. Lord Fear’s skeletal face extended from around the corner after them. “You cannot run from Fear!”

Twisting in his seat Mark saw Sam and Allison running towards them and he pushed Chuck down as Pigface hit the seat. The other people in the theatre started screaming and running for the exits.

Lord Fear advanced on them as he leveled the staff. Mark held his arms up- sending a blast at Lord Fear and the force of it sent him backwards at the same time as Fear focused Staff head to bring the shield up.

There was a good reason Ace used his lightning canons to channel his power- it was harder to control the raw power and Mark fought to stand as he fought the feedback. The green beam and the blue lightning hit each other, sparks of both bouncing, and several hit the two pieces of the amulet.

Rearing for another attack Pigface advanced on Chuck, and then turned to the seat where the popcorn was. Chuck tried to edge toward to where Allison and Sam were but froze as Pigface looked up. “Time for the special course” Then the giant pig squealed as he was hit by a blast and Heather ran down the cinema steps, the canon strapped on tightly. Pigface faded out.

“You can thank me later” Heather said to Chuck as she passed him. Fear sneered as he ran out of the theatre.

The edge of adrenaline fading, Chuck found to his shame he couldn’t thank Heather despite how much he had gotten to know her better more in the short time she had known about Ace Lightning than their entire lives here.

But it was still a sore point that Heather had gotten Mark’s old cannon. So she had some martial arts skills- he had known about this game long before any of them.

And still all he was useful for was as the group computer buff- and although that did make the Chuckster a component of this mix that protected Conestoga Hills, it somehow made Chuck feel like he was made second string…

“Looks like you are getting along with that” Mark said grudgingly to Heather. Somehow there had started a competition between them to see who could handle themselves better- not helped by Mark’s power control issues. Only last month, Mark would have given almost anything to have these powers, now he was appreciating how easy it had been without them. Like not draining the power out of his Discman, or his old hand held games.

“I am, aren’t I” Heather said smiling, not so much arrogant but confident.

Sam shook her head at the two. It was just because the pair had such strong personalities and conflicting viewpoints. Heather and Mark- both just had to be right. But Heather respected Mark more than she did Kat…who was nowhere to be found. Sam frowned realizing the other girl was gone; Kat seemed to take off a lot lately.

“As much as I don’t want to interrupt this- can we go before security shows up?”

The group walked out and the empty cinema was still and quiet. Several moments later the small purple spark that no one noticed, crackled and grew bigger. Instead of the usual deep purple, red sparks were crackling burning anything they touched, the distortions in the air violent.

A woman with long black hair backed into a wall. Her pale skin standing out with red eyes, Distortion looked up. “Go ahead Lightning make my day” the mistress of Time hissed venomously.

Ace Lightning’s costume seemed wrong black with dark gold and red insignia over it, his hair wild. “You don’t get off that easy- where’s your time powers, run out of time?”

Mark and Sparx laughed, enjoying the humiliation of this pathetic hero. A portal opened up and Distortion used what little power she had left to create a time dilation and they were frozen and unable to fight as they were pulled through.

Sparx looked around; the dark almost Celtic designs around her eyes making them look darker. “What did that has been do now?”

“I’m not sure” Ace said savagely. “But she will pay, by Lord Zoar she shall”

---

Fiona Hollander was busy arranging flowers on the table as Mark came in, taking off his coat. “How was the movie Mark?” she asked, and then he remembered with a disappointing jolt, his cousin Ashley and her parents were coming over this evening to catch up.

“It was… okay Mum” Things had settled down in the Hollander household, and things were somehow getting right again. Mark was just taking this thing one day at a time.

“Mark” Fiona said quickly looking up. “I’ll need you to help your father with dinner tonight, I have to check on a house last minute, and grab something from the store“

Mark nodded. Looked like he was house bound tonight unless he wanted another repeat of what seemed to happen when his cousin turned up, which every time seemed to nearly expose the whole secret and get them all blasted to oblivion.

Chika better be staying home- with both Lord Fear and the Master Programmer running around, the last thing they needed was an errant hamster or kid causing trouble.

The phone rang and Mark moved into the kitchen as he heard his mother move to the garage to leave. There was the sound of an exasperated argument, primarily to do with leaving the barbeque packed away- it was too cold anyway as they moved into December. The world was safe from Simon Hollander for the winter.

“Hello?”

“Hey Mark, its Ace”

“Ace, what is it?” Mark asked reluctantly, the last thing he needed was to have to deal with anything tonight to do with Lord Fear or any of those crazy evils that were a big obstacle in any kind of sane life.

“Is that your friend we always hear on the phone?” Mark nearly jumped. He hadn’t heard his dad enter the room. “Why don’t you invite him over tonight for tea?” he asked cheerfully and Mark froze, invite Ace over…now that was a disaster waiting to happen.

The words ‘I don’t think he can come’ barely formed in his mouth before Ace who had overheard the question added his opinion. “Sounds interesting… this gathering, it could help me blend in more around mortals”

Mark realized there was no easy way out of this one. He said no- it would make things awkward all around again and if he said yes… thing could be bad for a whole other reason.

“Fine” Mark said, keeping the reluctance out of his voice- he knew that if he hesitated it might end up hurting Ace’s feelings. “Do you want to come over tonight mate?” he asked.

“Yes he does” yelled Sparx, Ace had obviously accidently turned on speakerphone. “If I have to watch any more of this love sick like a mortal act, on Zoar I’ll swallow my sword”

“What’s the matter Sparxy” Illusion’s insult seemed almost uncaring- guaranteed to bait Sparx into a fight. “Jealous?”

“In your dreams Spider lady”

“Tonight” Ace said almost sounding annoyed at the pair and Mark could hear the ensuing scuffle over the phone. This included some very loud blasts and explosions.

Mark felt very tired all of a sudden. “Could someone hang up the phone?” he said loudly making his father stare at him oddly.

Now this was going to be a disaster, and suddenly facing Lord Fear again seemed somewhat more fun.

---

As Chuck was riding his scooter with Allison back to the Thunder tower, he was trying to match the points in the game with the real game. “So in the Sixth dimension, is there a villain- I mean an evil named Candy Floss?”

Allison nodded.

Chuck grinned to himself, sweet. The idea that he knew as much as the actual superhumans from this world made him feel good. At least it helped make up for earlier.

Chuck frowned as Mark appeared from a side deserted road, and he did a double take at his appearance. Blue and black hair spikes, black leather jacket- Mark looked like a poster boy for some kind of street punk.

Next to him, Allison frowned as she felt his emotional state; it felt like static as if coming in all broken, the emotions were dark and turbulent.

Mark laughed coldly. “Hey come look at this” Chuck realized something was very wrong when he saw Sparx and Ace, the uniform as if from the- of course!

He remembered winning this prize last year that covered an unexplored part of the game including this doorway that looked like a mirror- the mirror of Reverse in the carnival of doom forced you to battle with a copy of yourself (Ace) only evil.

But those had only been copies.

“What happened to you two” asked Dark Mark. The lightning bolt around Allison’s neck was sparking an angry mix of scarlet and blue.

“It’s never done that before” Allison said quietly to Chuck, and they backed away slowly with the scooter as the dark versions of Mark, Ace and Sparx advanced. Chuck thought quickly and he remembered how he had defeated the mirror, by shining the ‘Light of Truth’- an electrical light weapon. For that they needed an object of light….

Chuck grabbed Allison’s pendant off her neck and switched on the scooter light, touching the pendant to the light. A shimmering field in the air caused little blue cracks of energy to attack the dark versions seeming to paralyze them.

Chuck hurriedly put the pendant in his chest pocket and started the scooter back up getting them out of there as fast as he could.

---

Mark was pacing back and forth in his room, feeling a sense of something in between panic and dread filling him.

The second Ashley had came, he had gotten her alone to make sure that she would be quiet when Ace arrived, the last thing that needed to happen was a comment like ‘hey you look different’ to get his parents antenna up.

To which Ashley had gotten offended and had said at nine she was old enough that she knew what the smart thing to do was. Ashley had been watching him pace, touching the amulet periodically- her eyes widening when sparks passed between his fingers.

“What is that” Ashley asked, practically bug eyed. Mark sighed, keeping his newfound abilities a secret was tiring and hard to keep up. Sometimes around electronics, they would stop for a moment almost as if something was interfering with them.

Random ironically had been the best help about why he was out of control (before the whole falling back to insanity bit) - the power was raw and generated a constant electromagnetic field that spiked with emotions.

And insanity as in lost it, ever since the whole event with the Master Programmer Random Virus had utterly lost control. Random was back in the junkyard and attacking anyone who came near.

“Are you a superhero now?”

Mark sighed. An explanation- a watered down one might be the only thing that would keep Ashley quiet in this case. “Yes Ashley, but it’s a secret”

The young girl sighed. “You sure have a lot of secrets Mark”

Mark smiled wryly. “Tell me about it” The sound of the doorbell broke their conversation and he practically ran out of the room.

As he reached the stairs, he saw his father opening the door and Ace stood there. Dressed like he should be in an executive cooperate advertisement of the TV. Illusion he thought with a breath of relief. Only she could have done this, and he made a mental note to thank her.

Though who know how long she would hold this over his head- probably because she wanted Mark to ask Sparx to help him train, which would get her out of the Thunder Tower.

“ Mark” said Simon smiling. “Your friend is here” he sounded excited. Not a good thing. “ So- what was the name again?”

“Dr. Daniel Jackson” Ace replied, and Mark winced. That was what happened when you let your best friend who happened to be obsessed with all science fiction ever created pick the fake names. This was never going to work.

Simon studied Ace, the shook his hand grinning. “ Where are my manners, Simon Hollander, Dr. Jackson- Mark never told us you were a doctor- were you at the hospital with Mark?”

This was definitely not going to work.

---To Be Continued---

And as an answer to an age old question- I ironically wasn’t trying back then to use crystalline as a way to say how amazing the characters eyes were- I was just trying to change words over the first part to make it sound intelligent.

All it does now is make ‘me’ cringe and it will be edited out with the name.