‘If I must.’ She mumbled and hit Enter. A new screen, full of light and unimaginably colourful flowers, filled the monitor. Waterfalls cascaded into crystal pools and eagles flew over snow-covered peaks. The voice told her that this was her home, and she was the Guardian. She would need a name and a physical appearance before she could play.

‘Oh, I don’t know, what…?’ She turned around and called over to Dave. ‘Give me a name to use on this computer game.’

‘What sort of name?’

‘Anything! Just think of something quickly.’

‘Bumtilda?’

‘Lovely! Can’t you think of something a bit more, well, attractive?’

Dave grinned across at her. ‘Considering that magazine you were looking at, how about “Rubbatitti”?’

‘Oh, get a grip! That’s from a Carry-on film! Oh just forget it. Bumtilda will do.’

She typed in her ‘name’ and was given a selection of body types to adopt. She chose tall, athletic, scarlet hair, and incredibly sexy.

‘Can I watch?’ asked Dave.

‘No, you can’t. It’s very difficult to get dribble marks off a silk blouse. Now shut up. I have to defend my new kingdom from the Lyco-monsters.’

Cat sat engrossed for almost twenty minutes, then saw Dave placing a coffee next to her mouse mat. ‘How’s it going?’ he asked.

‘I’ve reached Level 6, and if this is anything to go by, I don’t think I want to get to Level 10!’

‘Is it as bad as the Sarge reckoned?’

‘Worse.’ said Cat, and exited the programme. ‘And from his description I’m pretty sure he never got past Level 1. It’s all about going to extremes for something you care about, then getting rewards,’ she paused, ‘or punishments, as the case maybe.’

‘And the Griffyx?’

‘It’s there, alright. You don’t meet it until you reach Level 5. It’s one of the monsters, kind of half-rat, half-human, and it dispenses the most unpleasant retribution, if you are unlucky enough to cross it. It also has the biggest dong I’ve ever seen.’

‘Thanks for sharing that.’ Dave grimaced. ‘And does it look like the masks?’

‘I’d say they are based on it, yes. What I need to do now, is find out who the devil Lyco is.’

‘Do you reckon he’s connected to the Mask War?’

Cat stretched and massaged her shoulders. ‘We won’t know until we meet him, Davey-boy. And if I’m honest, I’m not sure that I’d want to be in the same room as the twisted mind that devised this.’