They were back, back home again in Dot’s bedroom. Zooming out of networld into her home just as they always did. And just as if they’d never been gone - because as usual while they were net-voyaging, time in realworld stood still. Or maybe moved a bit. But by no more than a billionth of a second. Or a couple of billionths at the most!

And there was her laptop – with the shiny new mouse that had replaced Mr Mouse still there.

Only, it didn’t look very shiny at all just now. None of its lights was on – even though the laptop was – and it was just a lump of black plastic, looking sorry for itself!

Mr Mouse wasn’t sorry for it though.

“What in the name of the net is that?” he asked. He sauntered over and gave it a push with his foot. Nothing. Not a flicker.

“It's what took over from you” grinned Wiz. “Dot’s Dad loves it – thinks it’s got great flashing lights!”

“Well it ain’t lit up now!” humphed Mr Mouse. “I ask you! Just look at it!” Dot was. She wasn’t saying anything because she was thinking furiously. Any minute now Dad would come and find Mr M was back, and what would she say then???

Think Dot! Think!!

“Hey, zis is ver’ nice!” said Fromage, jumping down onto Dot’s chill-out chair tucked in close to the right-hand side of the computer table. “Ver’ comfortable!”

It was a big comfy chair, with lots of cushions on it. The only trouble was, things kept getting lost in it – once she’d found a Snickers bar there that she’d lost over Christmas. At Easter!

Now, wait a minute, she thought. What if…

“A-nee-way!” said Fromage hopping back onto the computer table. “I must fly! I remember just now - Madame Fromage ‘as ‘er parents coming to stay tonight, and I must be zere… ‘er Papa is VER’ strict!” He turned to Mr Mouse with a big mousey smile, his arms out wide. “I am ZO glad to see you safe at the home for you, mon cousin!” He reached out and gave his cousin a big hug. “Come net-voyage to us in Quebec. Soon, uh?”

“Yeah real soon” said Mr Mouse. He gave Fromage a big hug back. “Thanks a million for helping find me, uh? You’re one good guy, you know?” He wiped his eyes with the back of his paw. Awww, thought Dot.

Now – maybe what we could do is -

Fromage blew a kiss at Dot and Fromage. “A bientôt, mes amis!” * he smiled. “We have had some grand adventures, uh? Another time, we… ”

A little dring-dring came from a mini-phone in a case at his waist that Dot hadn’t noticed before. It glowed slightly as Fromage looked down. “Oop la! It is Madame! Au revoir! Au revoir!”

And with that – and a double click from his cousin – he was gone, through the laptop screen zooming off down the cyber pathways towards his impatient Madame Fromage!

“Dot!” called her Dad from downstairs. “Are you near the laptop? Hang on, need to tell you something!”

And then came the sound of her father coming up the stairs, two steps at a time, like he always did!

That’s it! That’ll do it!

With a sweep of her hand, Dot knocked Mr Mouse onto her chill-out chair and plumped a cushion over him.

“Hey!” yelled the Canadian cheesehunter, his angry voice muffled by the cushion. “What the heck are you doing!”

“Sssh!” Dot hissed. “Trust me!”

“What’s going on?” asked Wiz, looking very puzzled. Then: “Oops! Sorry! Realworld time!” He lay down in full Cavalier King Charles spaniel mode, tongue hanging out, big brown eyes gazing up adoringly at Dot.

Next moment, her Dad was in the room.

“I should have known better” he said, his face a picture of gadget let-down. “That blingy mouse is HOPELESS!” He gave it a bad-tempered push so it skidded across the computer desk. Still nothing.

“It’s not working AT ALL now! I’m going to ring Zapotek. WISH we still had our old mouse, I really do! It was perfectly OK really! But now it’s gone for good!”

And then – Dot could hardly believe her luck – he plumped down heavily on her chill-out chair!

“It’s all my fault! I should never have - ” He suddenly stopped and felt underneath one of the cushions he was sitting on. “What’s this? Oh! Fantastic! Our trusty old mouse! Zapotek must have dropped it here and couldn’t find it to take it away!”

He picked Mr Mouse up and untangled his cable. “Zapo may be a computer whizz but he really is SO disorganized!” He beamed at Dot. “Let’s give it a go!”

A quick plug-in, and – Ping! Everything worked! Pointer zooming about, documents opening, Harry Potter game playing better than ever – Mr Mouse’s stay at Chip-and-Chip-Again Recycling had done him a bit of good!

“Oh, this is great!” said Dad. “Good old mouse!”

Dot picked up the new – and broken - mouse. “I wonder if Chip-And-Chip-Again could fix this…” she said, half to herself.

“Who?” said Dad, looking up with a puzzled face.

“Oh… er… just some recycling place I heard about!” said Dot, trying not to go red in the face. On the floor at her feet Wizard did his “Er durrrr Dot!” sigh.

“Is anyone going to come and have this tea before it goes cold?” called Dot’s mum up the stairs.

“Woops!” said Dad. “Better go! Mum got us some crumpets!”

And he was off. You can’t keep Bill Com away from a nice buttered crumpet.

Or Wiz. He was away down the stairs after titbits, right behind Dad.

“Nice one, kid!” said Mr Mouse. “It’s good to be back!” He gave a huge mousey yawn. “Been a busy ol’ day. Need a break. Nap time…”

And he curled up next to the laptop, and went straight off to sleep.

Dot sat down in her chill-out chair with a thump. So, that was it! Adventure over and everyone safe back home. Phew!

But then she felt something in her jeans digging into her.

She put her hand in her back pocket – and found the little leather pouch Eldenbeam the TricTrucTracker had given her, just as they parted. It had something hard in it.

Undoing the neatly-tied strings that closed it at the top, she took out what was inside, putting the pouch down on a cushion next to her.

It was a perfect little model of the red train that had come in and out of the Food Mountain – or Food Hill, they sometimes called it – on Lucia the Tracboat. As she held it in her hand it shook slightly, and the wheels turned, making her jump.

It even gave a little toot-toot!

But before she could look at it more closely, it started to fade. It was the funniest thing - she could still feel it in the palm of her hand, but its outline became blurred. Then the colour went from red to pink to a dusty kind of pinky-grey. Then there was only its outline. Then – zlip! – it was gone, gone completely, and she couldn’t even feel it in her hand any more.

She looked at where the pouch had been, beside her on the chair – but that had gone too.

All that was left was the feeling of the little train in her hand, fast fading away.

Then she remembered what Walpurgis had told her, as she’d tried to get them to travel on with her outside the net.

“We are pure net-people - not like you Dot or Fromage or dear old Wizard. We just don't exist outside the internet... ”

So… the same must be true of anything they made…

Dot sighed. It was such a nice present – especially coming from Eldenbeam, who could be such a grouch sometimes. It came from his heart. She’d REALLY have liked to have kept it as a souvenir.

Oh well…

Then, with a catch of her breath, she remembered something else! What had happened to Zonemaster Nascarbalone Trinth? Had he beaten the Zeensucker in that terrible fight?

But even as she thought it, she smiled – because she was sure she knew the answer. NOTHING was going to get the better of Nascarbalone Trinth inside his beloved Tzone 66!

“DOT!” called her mum. “You’d better come down now if you want that crumpet! Dad’s got his eye right on it!”

Dot jumped up. No way was she going to miss that.

“Coming!” she called, and was off down the stairs in a flash!

* - See you soon, my friends!