"Ping! He just went! Adrian Webb just vanished!"

"What... but... but the competition was for him, for esure.com!" said Wizzie. "Even Brian Mallow couldn't just do that!"

"Well he did" said Mr Mouse. "One minute old Ade was there on the inset screen - it just kind of hovered in the Internet sky, like a kind of flying flatscreen TV - next old Mallow whipped out this funny-looking remote control thing, and he wasn't!"

"How RUDE!" said Dot. "There wouldn't have been any Rodent Roundup at all if it wasn't for Mr Webb!"

"Call him Adrian, Dot" said Mr Mouse in his chilled-out way. "Everyone does!"

"So what did - Ade do, then?" asked Wiz.

"Oh nothing right away" said Mr Mouse. "Cousin Esure and I just kinda looked at each other, and then Mallow came down in his flying saucer thing till he was very close to us and went "Proceed!" I can see him now - he had this kind of twisted grin on his face and his little black eyes kind of went right through you."

Mr Mouse shuddered. "I tell ya, if I never see that guy again it'll be too soon! And STOOPID Flossbottom kept buzzing us like a bee, buzz-buzz-buzz in our ears. In the end Cousin Esure just shrugged and said "Let's do it Mr M - it's the only way out of here for both of us."

"But couldn't you - " began Dot.

"Nope!" said Mr Mouse, shaking his head. "But that liquorice- yukkerama! It was just lying on the floor of Netplain like two humungeous black snakes, coiling away as far as you could see. It was as if the "snakes" each had their head inside the box with the golden key that meant you'd won Rodent Roundup!"

Urggh, thought Dot. Imagine thinking you were eating a snake... and from the tail end... yukkayukkayukka!! And you had to keep on eating till you got to the box... and if you slowed up... the liquorice got longer and longer! Sick sick sick!

"You didn't do it, did you?" asked Wizzie, looking a bit queasy. (He doesn't like liquorice either!)

"Well, we started" said Mr Mouse. "But then it happened!"

"What, WHAT?" said Wiz with an excited bark.

"This kind of rocket thing. Came from nowhere!" said Mr Mouse. "It was shaped just like a big pencil, in fact I'm not sure it wasn't a big pencil. A big fat pencil two metres long. It just zoomed across the net sky, straight for Brian Mallow. Then it stopped, with the point about ten centimetres away from his nose. It just hung there. He looked TOTALLY scared, I can tell you!"

"Yesss!" said Wizzie, punching the air (which is kind of difficult when you've only got paws to punch with. Looks a bit silly too, really!)

"Flossbottom started pecking at it in her crazy hummingbird way, but it just hung there. Then suddenly" Mr Mouse giggled at the memory "suddenly this little flag dropped out of it. It said "BANG!" Mallow just sat there looking frozen in space."

Mr Mouse giggled again. "He couldn't see the writing on the side of the pencil - but we could. "It said 'A Present from Adrian Webb @ esure.com' THEN another flag dropped out of it. This one said, in big gold letters, "YOU'RE FIRED!" And THEN... "

"Oh PLEASE tell me you're going to say what I think you're going to say!" said Wizzie, jumping up with his front paws on the desk where Mr Mouse was sitting, his tail wagging so fast it was a kind of blur.

"Er... what..?" said Dot, feeling a bit left behind.

"YES indeedy!" said Mr Mouse, giving his friend a High 5. "YES indeedy-doo-dah!"

"BIG - BLUE - FLASH!!!"