BRRRRRRRRRRRMMMM! BRRRRRRRRRRRMMMM!
The cyber rats were really close now – flying at a height just a few metres above the cachou tree where Dot and her friends were hiding. They daren’t move, not an inch.
Peeping up through the strange wing-like leaves that were hiding them, Dot could see the bikes from below. There were literally hundreds of them - all kinds of colours and shapes, some with coloured streamers hanging down from the handlebars, some with big shiny exhaust pipes that gleamed in the light of the Internet sky - even a girly one with leather fringes all round its sides.
The cyber rat girl riding it didn’t look girly though. She looked meaner than Avril Lavigne on a bad hair day!!
Leading the cyber rat army was Mr Fruity himself. He still looked red in the face with rage, and he was leaning forward over his handlebars as if he wanted to make his bike go faster just by pushing it.
As Dot watched he turned round to the cyber rats following and shouted “Get them! WE MUST GET THEM! And a thousand net-credits to whoever catches that… that… TRAITOR Cruncher!”
The cyber rats behind him let out a huge shout in reply, and revved their bike engines even harder. They were almost overhead now, blocking out the light of the Net-sky.
Then, suddenly, there was a sneeze.
No, you don’t understand. This was a MONSTER sneeze, a six Kleenex one, the kind of sneeze that makes people ten metres away jump out their skins.
Just MEGA!
“AH – TISH – OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!”
It was – yes, you’ve guessed it – Mr Mouse. It just would be!!
He poked his little head out from his hidey-hole under the shoulder of Dot’s T-shirt. “Where are we?” he said, rubbing his eyes and straightening his baseball cap.
He’d woken up and something in the leaves of the cachou tree had set him off. He can be a bit allergic you see. Now, if I were him –
PLEASE get on with it Rob! Sharon Doughty, missdorothy.com founder.
Oops sorry Shaz!
Oh no, oh NO thought Dot. Surely they’ll hear that – it was EVEN LOUDER than the bike engines. They just can’t miss it!!
Too right! One of the cyber rats – a very nasty looking one with a red Mohican haircut and a big ring through his nose - looked down sharply, and then turned in a gliding curve towards the cachou tree.
“Anyone got a tissue?” said Mr Mouse, wiping his nose on the back of his paw. (Yukky!)
“SSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH!” said Dot and Wizzie together. But it looked like it was too late. She closed her eyes and held her breath.
But then –
“AH-TISHOO!”
And:
“AH-TISHOO!”
“AH-TISHOO!”
“AH-TISHOO!”
“AH-TISHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”
Suddenly, all the cyber rats seemed to be sneezing – they just couldn’t stop themselves. The one who’d been coming down towards where they were hiding was the worst of the lot – he was having a terrible time trying to control his cyber bike as he sneezed and sneezed and sneezed!
But they were all in a pickle (as Nan Com would say.) It was like what had happened in the cyber rats’ cavern all over again, only this time the rats were on their bikes.
They just COULDN’T stop sneezing, and it was messing them up so much they couldn’t control their bikes either!
They were going all over the Net sky, crashing into each other with LOTS of bad language, flying sideways, backwards, all over the place – even turning completely upside down (somehow the rats managed to stay in their seats even when that happened.)
“AH-TISHOO! AH-TISHOO!”
“Tee hee!” giggled Drindel Zildith.
Wiz looked up. “Was that you?” he whispered – though there was no need to keep quiet now – you could hardly hear yourself think for all the sneezing!
“Tee hee!” said Drindel again. “Just a little trick!” He held up a tiny screen a bit like a PDA, or a Palm Pilot. “It records everything! I just copied and pasted Mr Mouse’s big sneeze onto them! Tee-HEE!”
“Anyone like to tell me what’s going on?” grumped Mr Mouse.
“No!” said Wizzie angrily. “You twit! You nearly - ”
“REGROUP! REGROUP!”
It was a huge shout from Mr Fruity – still wiping his long ratty nose, he was roaring round the cyber rats, giving some of them a clip on the ear, kicking others in the leg, waving his ratty paw above his head, angrier than ever.
“You load of sniffling WUSSES!” he shouted, above the sound of the bike engines and the sneezing that was still going on a bit. “We’ll lose them! RE-GROUP! DO IT NOW!”
And they did – very quickly really. They may be horrible, those cyber rats, but they do know how to ride their bikes.
The red-haired one was nowhere to be seen – looked like he’d got completely lost.
BRRRRRRRRRRRMMMM! BRRRRRRRRRRRMMMM!
They were off again. Drindel’s trick had worked – they thought Mr Mouse’s giant sneeze was one of their own.
Phew! Dot heaved a huge sigh of relief. They were safe again.
But then –
“What’s HAPPENING!” said Mr Mouse, jumping up.
The cachou tree was moving!
