And he was still holding the mask! He couldn’t believe it! But the mask’s energy was so much stronger at level 17 than it had been at level 21. Griff’s hands throbbed like they’d been stung by bees. The bones in his arms ached right up to his shoulders. He fought the temptation to drop the mask and run. Everything would be all right as long as he could get it back to his cache straight away.
But before Griff could take a single step, the rareio’s body began filling out behind the mask. Within seconds, the rareio was towering over him with misty peppermint light pulsing strongly inside it like a heavy heartbeat.
‘Collector!’ shouted Griff, but the rareio was having none of it. Like an escaped wild animal, it seemed delighted with its new freedom, but furious at the same time. It was still very glitchy, and each time it glitched, it roared with rage and pain and glared at Griff, its eyes burning through the slits of the mask. The rareio looked like it hated Griff and it was easy to guess why. It blamed the boy for corrupting and damaging it. Griff was its enemy.
‘Didn’t you hear me? Collector!’ shrieked Griff. He was properly scared, almost as though the rareio were threatening him in real life. What was the worst that could happen? he asked himself. Maybe his suit would deactivate for good. What were the chances of his parents buying him another suit? Zero, once his mum had found out what he’d done.
Griff couldn’t see any stats floating around the rareio’s head because it should not have been appearing to a level 17 player. In desperation, he clasped his hands over his heart in a double fist. A weak blue flash blurted out and died before it even reached the rareio.
From behind its mask, the rareio laughed, a horrible twisted sound. It began closing in on Griff.
Griff started backing away. For pity’s sake, what was happening? Enteos were supposed to be raced, chased, collected or destroyed; they weren’t supposed to chase you! His lightning bolts were getting smaller and weaker and his health thermometer was on its final bar. Exhausted in real life as well as in the game, with the rareio nearly on top of him, Griff summoned up all his power for one final lightning bolt.
‘Collector!’ he croaked.
The smallest flicker flew from his hands. It was no bigger than the flame on a birthday cake candle. But it caught the rareio at the very moment it was glitching. To Griff’s relief, the mask dropped to the floor, clattering at his feet. Out of breath, he picked it up and could feel that terrible pulsing energy again, sending tremors shooting up his arms. There was no time to waste. He bolted away to the party room where he kept his cache.
7
Slimy Confetti
‘Lev-el 21, I said lev-el 21!’ Lance chanted, punching the air with his fists as though he’d just returned from victory at the footie.
‘What’s it like at level 21 then?’ asked Lia. For once, she looked impressed. Turning to Ant, she said, ‘You playing Ray-Chay yet?’
‘A bit,’ Ant lied, hiding behind his mug of tea. He didn’t like lying but he hated feeling like he was letting Lance down. Lance had gone out of his way to bring him that suit.
Ant needn’t have worried. His sister was more interested in Lance, who did one of his gymnastic dives over the back of the sofa, stretched out and began to tell them all about it. The shop had been quiet that afternoon and Daisy, his boss, had actually suggested he go and play in the back room, knowing he’d nearly reached level 21. It sounded amazing that you could get paid for playing games, but there was a practical reason. If a member of staff had in-depth knowledge of a game, he or she could do a better job of explaining it to customers.
‘From level 21 onwards, it feels like a whole new game. All that racing and chasing was just about skilling up. From here on in, it’s about finding new, more difficult destroyers and using your cache.’ Ant had never seen Lance so animated. Suddenly the game did sound a lot more exciting. Ant wondered whether he’d been wrong about it.
‘Each of the special destroyers has a matching collector the same flavour,’ Lance jabbered on. ‘If you’ve got that particular collector in your cache, you’ll not only zap the destroyer but you’ll gain thousands of extra points. Literally, thousands. This morning, I found one of these new destroyers up in the south stand. It was this amazing bubblegum flavour and so shiny. I knew I had the matching collector so I zoomed to the dressing room – that’s where I keep my cache. I just said, “Wanna play?” and it just kind of jumped up and melted over the top of me. I felt this funny sensation starting in my head and running down my entire body.’ He wiggled his fingers from his head down to his toes and shuddered.
‘Urgh!’ exclaimed Lia. ‘I don’t like the sound of that.’
‘It wasn’t too bad, just weird, like nothing I’ve ever felt before. The thing is, when it happened, I felt exactly like I did when I was your age, Ant, the time I scored the winning goal for the school football team. The memory just popped into my head and gave me this surge of super-strength. I felt invincible. It was unbelievable. I legged it back to the south stand, called out the destroyer, used my lightning bolt and KER-CHOOM!’
Ant and Lia jumped.
‘That’s right,’ Lance whispered dramatically. ‘It exploded like slimy confetti and ZAP! Two hundred thousand points, just like that.’
‘Wow,’ breathed Lia.
‘Sounds impressive,’ said Ant. ‘Is this to do with those funny suckers inside the headset again?’
‘Yep, I read up about it on the Crunch Hut website,’ answered Lance. ‘When
