"I never knew you could do that!" said Wizzie.

For once, the Cavalier King Charles spaniel was looking at his old friend Mr Mouse as if he was someone special. And he'd just shown them - he was!

Dot could hardly believe it either. Mr M had just given them an exclusive performance, of what he'd done to get through to the next stage of 'Rodent Roundup' - and it was, well, super-cool! You could see why Brian Mallow had said, in his big boomy voice "MR MOUSE! WELCOME TO THE RODENT ROUNDUP HALL OF FAME!"

Especially after what Mr Mouse had told them about how it happened.

"Brian Mallow, looking STRAIGHT at me!" he'd said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Boy was I SCARED!"

He whistled and puffed out his cheeks. "Thing was though, there was no gettin' away from that flamin' humming bird - he was right in front of me, his little wings whirring like a helicopter, and there was just nowhere to hide. Specially with that kind of Star Wars thing pointing at you - it's so darn bright, you can't see anything except the light, an' everywhere round you is all dark, and all you can really see is the way to the Stage of Stardom!"

"Oh no!" said Dot. It reminded her of the time she'd been Mary the mother of Jesus in the school Christmas play - she'd only had to say a few words to say but when her turn came she had this funny feeling that everyone was very far away like looking through the wrong end of a telescope, and her voice sounded all strange and she thought she was pants! But afterwards her Mum gave her the biggest hug ever and so did her Dad so she couldn't have been that bad!

"Well anyway" Mr Mouse went on "I knew I hadda do it - Cousin Esure was just by me, he was a-whispering "Go for it kid! You can do it!" - so I started walking... felt like a gazillion years getting there but then there I was on the Stage of Stardom. And then... "

He stopped again and shook his head, looking puzzled.

"What is it?" asked Dot.

"Well all that stuff I did just now, and on the Stage of Stardom - I don't know where it came from, but suddenly I could do it. Didn't rehearse or anything - just did it! An', see, they kinda knew what you were going to do - creepy! 'Cos when the music came in it was just right! It was 'Jive Talking' - perfecto!"

And it certainly was! What Mr Mouse had shown his two friends was an AMAZING dance routine - moonwalking, slipping, sliding. back flips, shimmying along - it was like watching Michael Jackson doing stuff from his 'Thriller' album, only with a mouse tail and ears! It ended with Mr Mouse doing a double back somersault and then standing with his arms stretched out, ta raaa!

"So... Brian Mallow MUST have liked that!" said Wizard with a grin.

"He did! He did indeed!" said Mr Mouse with pride. "Next thing I know, I'm up there with all the winners - five of us in our little flying saucers next to the great Brian Mallow." He smiled, like someone remembering a really special moment.

"And then the fun really started!"