Black.

Awareness returned. He wondered how many times he’d have to do this.

The light grid appeared.

Hall, in his avatar guise, took his place.

Everything glitched. It was like the entire universe hiccuped.

A horizontal laser beam glowed a bright menacing white-hot, as it moved towards him. At knee height, it was like a deadly limbo stick held too low. It extended beyond sight in either direction, so there was no going around.

Hall jumped and it passed below him.

Another beam, this time at shoulder height. He ducked and it passed over him.

And then it was on. Beam after beam, at various heights, with increasing speed. Hall jumped and ducked, ducked and jumped, silently thankful his avatar was way fitter than the real-life Hall.

The real-life Hall?

Is there a difference?

The onslaught of lasers soon had his mind back on the matter at hand.

As he jumped one beam, another raced towards him at a greater speed. It was ankle height. There was no way he could jump again in time. He was about to get a radical height reduction.

Everything glitched. And the beam was gone.

But others came.

Jump.

Duck.

Jump.

Jump.

Jump.

Duck.

Now two beams headed for him simultaneously, one at head height, the other aiming for his knees.

He jumped and stretched out horizontally, twisting in midair. One beam passed below him, the other passed overhead. It felt like a magic, slow-mo, action-movie scene.

Whoa! I am so cool!

Hall crashed to the ground, ending his movie-star moment.

A mouse-high laser sizzled towards him. He tried rolling away from it, but it was faster.

He closed his eyes, ready for it all to end.

But it didn’t.

He opened one eye. The laser was millimetres from his nose … frozen.

‘This isn’t real!’

A figure stepped over the beam, its boots coming down beside Hall’s head. Big, chunky boots. Field Marshal Maheera was looming over him.

‘On your feet, soldier.’

‘What? How?’ stammered Hall, jumping up. ‘I don’t even know how I got here. Or why I’m my game avatar. And –’

‘This is a virtual environment,’ explained Maheera. ‘You appear as your game avatar because that’s what you want to look like. In here, you can be anything you want.’

As if to prove the point, Maheera morphed into a giant red kitten, still with medals and ribbons on her furry chest. She purred, then changed back into herself.

‘You can do the same,’ she said. ‘You just need to think it. You can also control the environment to a certain extent.’

Their surroundings glitched.

‘Are you doing that?’ asked Hall.

‘No. You are.’

The environment hiccuped, faltered and shook. The laser beam moved a couple of centimetres closer and froze again. Hall stepped over it.

‘I did this?’ Hall thought for a moment. ‘If this is a virtual environment, then where am I? Really?’

‘Make your way out of here and you’ll find out,’ said Maheera, stepping back.

‘How?’

‘Beat it. Break it! Control it, soldier.’ She was bellowing like a drill sergeant. ‘Do whatever it takes. Play the game!’

Maheera suddenly glitched, her face pixelating and stretching.

‘What’s up with you?’ asked Hall.

‘I’ve been hacked into this game. I’m not supposed to be here. It’s only a matter of time before they regain control and I’ll have to exit.’

‘They?’ asked Hall, anxiety rising. ‘Who’s they?’

‘The machines.’ And then she was gone.

The machines? Did she mean Siggy?

He didn’t have time to contemplate this revelation. The laser beams were on the move again, three new ones racing towards him. Even in his HallsOfAwesome guise, could he deal with this?

HallsOfAwesome?

No! He was just plain old Hall. Hall Gatwick. Twelve years old. Short, unfit and a little chubby.

POP!

The avatar was gone, replaced by the real Hall. The real Hall in a virtual world. A fake world. A world that he needed to get out of.

Hall jumped and ducked to avoid the oncoming beams.

Three new beams now approached – one high, one low, and the third wavering up and down between them.

This is getting too hard, Hall thought.

It was time to test out what Maheera had told him.

How much can I control?

Concentrating on the lasers, he tried to stop them. They seemed to slow a bit, but kept on coming. Giving up on that approach, he leaned forward and fell, thinking hard about floating as he did so.

It worked.

As he toppled, Hall’s feet lifted up off the ground until he was floating horizontally. He sucked in his tummy and then floated up and down, easily avoiding the beams.

Now he needed to stop them and get out of this place.

But how?

And then he had it. Mirrors! That’s what he needed.

As beams passed above and below, he twirled through the air and concentrated.

He landed. His clothing was now different. Very different. He was covered head to toe in tiny mirrors, like some bizarre disco ball.

Hall struck a dance pose, one hand pointing up, the other down, and gave a nod. Disco music filled the air and the floor became a chequerboard of coloured, light-up squares, just like in that daggy film his mum liked so much.

The lasers drew closer but he stood his ground.

Hall watched as the deadly beams of light streaked towards him, hoping his plan would work.

Three lasers hit simultaneously.

White-hot light reflected off the mirrors, the beams bouncing in all directions. Explosions detonated in the darkness, sparks raining down on Hall.

Light flared and flickered.

The music distorted.

Alarms whined.

The grid winked out of existence.

Everything disappeared!