Geronimo Stilton: INTERPOL-Trouble In France: An Old Enemy Returns

An Odd Discovery

I was flattered that my new style was well accepted by them, and hoped that other classmates did too. Then a single tickle in my throat made me let out a small cough. I needed water, and spotted the drinking fountain at the corner of the hall from which I came. "Hey, I'm gonna head to the fountain for a bit, my throat's dry," I said to the two.

"We won't go anywhere," replied Pandora.

I walked with big steps, and drank out of the fountain as soon as I got to it.

Out of nowhere, Punk Rat comes into the hallways looking as bad and frightening as ever. In fact, he's been in all sorts of trouble as the years pass by. He's not just a troublemaker, he's now a delinquent. He was caught vandalizing, pulling dangerous pranks, and even performed a wedgie on most of the schools unpopular kids. Not on Benjamin though, he knows that I'll be there to protect him. And the consequences if he does something bad to him.

His eyes were locked on one of his usual target, Benjamin. But unluckily, the distance between them and the water fountain were yards away and I was unaware of the situation, so I wasn't there to help him out of this mess.

Yet.

He got closer to the two teenage mice. "Well, well...if isn't Benjamin Stilton," he began, getting in on Benjamin's face.

"What do you want from me, Punk Rat?" Benjamin rhetorically asked, shooting a frowned and cold stare at his enemy, eye to eye.

"What are you doing with my girlfriend?" he asked back, referring to Pandora. You see, Punk Rat has has a crush on her just like Benjamin does, but he claims that they're both in a relationship when they're actually not.

"I was NEVER your girlfriend, Punk Rat," Pandora rejected the statement. "Yuck..."

"I know you don't mean that, babe," he said. "Step aside, short stuff!" Punk Rat shoved the orange-furred mouse away like a group of eraser shavings.

Dropped 4 feet away, the brave and enraged Benjamin tried to get to his best friend by trying to push Punk Rat away. But his efforts were in vain as the bully was a lot heavier, and he didn't have the strength. Punk Rat just held him by the head as he got Pandora cornered against the lockers.

"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Benjamin warned, struggling to get to Pandora.

I heard the shout, and noticed that the two were in trouble again. I stopped drinking, wiped away the excess water on my lip, and hurried to the scene. For the record, this was the eighth time I fend him off this month.

Ignoring his victim, Punk Rat pretended to be all suave and dived in slowly to Pandora's snout. "Now, where were we, babe?" he said the lines of "sweet and romantic".

"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU CREEP!" she shouted, backing up against the lockers.

Ignoring her demands, Punk Rat started to pucker up his lips, getting ready for a kiss. Pandora shifted her eyes left and right, trying but failed to find a loophole to escape through. She turned her head to the side and unwillingly prepared for the worst. Benjamin was struggling as hard as ever to get past Punk Rat's giant paws.

I saw the situation intensifying and taking a wrong turn. Every mouse in the hall just watching what was going on, standing still as they were too feared to interfere. But not me. "HEY!" I yelled, instantly stopping and catching Punk Rat's attention.

"You again?!" Punk Rat reacted upon sight of me.

"When a girl wants you to back off, you back off," I stated, sounding defensive.

He left Benjamin and Pandora so he could face me. Meanwhile, Benjamin went to check on his dear friend to see if the bully had done something to her.

"Who're to to tell me what to do?! She ain't your girlfriend!" he disputed.

"She ain't yours either," I replied. "Now I kindly advise you step off from my friends and walk away."

"And I advise you to shut up before I smash your face!" he threatened, bashing his fist with the palm of his paw.

"You want a piece of this? Well, come at me, bro!" I said, giving my chest a hard pat. "That is, if you even have the balls to do it."

He felt challenged. I saw his veins throb at the corner of his forehead, getting agitated by every word I said. The place was starting to heat up at the halls, because something big was about to happen. "I've been wanting to do this ever since you came, filthy human..." he insulted.

He came charging at me like an angry bull with a long and loud battle cry. But I stood tall and strong, not a single feeling of intimidation entered my brain. He continued to run while charging a fist so he could land a punch. Instead, when the timing got perfect, I took a step to the left to avoid the fist, caught his arm with my right hand, his hair with my left when he went by me, pulled him so he'd turn and slammed his snout to the lockers with a bang. Next, I put the arm I grabbed on his back and pushed against it, and held his head against the wall.

"Not so tough now, are ya?" I taunted, whispering into his ear with a scary voice. "Now you listen to me. If I catch you bothering my friends or hearing them tell me that you bothered them, I will make sure that I return the favor by giving you a black eye and a broken tail. Got that?!"

Beginning to grow scared, he nodded as he was shaken by my capabilities. "And one more thing. Remember that we three are full-time Interpol Junior Special Agents, so if pull that stupid stunt off one more time to any girl and especially Pandora, I'm gonna have you sent to juvy for harassing a girl."

He nodded again. "Stop pushing my arm, your hurting me!" he pleaded.

"Don't like that, do ya? Huh?!" I said, pushing his arm up. "How about this, huh?! Don't like that?!" I flicked his ear with my finger. "What about this?!" I gave him a minor shock by electrocuting him with a finger's worth of Force Lightning...

Wait...Force Lightning? As a Jedi, I wasn't supposed to have Force Lightning.

I was unaware that both Benjamin and Pandora witnessed me use the power from the Dark Side of The Force. They kept gazing at me with raised eyebrows and exchanged worried looks. Yes, they knew that I was a Jedi if that's what you're asking.

"When I let go of you, you run. Never look back," I told him. He responded with a nod. I set him free, seeing him take off in a fright and disappeared to another hall of the school.

I readjusted my collar before I turned back to the stunned mice, approaching them with my hands in my pockets. "You're welcome," I began, fixing a enigmatic smile. They gave no response but look at each other wide-eyed. The next thing I knew, they pulled me to an unlocked janitor's closet next to our block of lockers.

"Whoa! Guys! What's going on?" I asked them.

"Dude, you just used a Force power in public!" Benjamin explained, whispering.

I frowned. "I did?!" I said in disbelief, trying to recall.

"Even worse, you used Force Lightning," Pandora added.

In my mind with the power of the microchip in my brain, I played back the memories that I recorded with my eyes. Then there it was, me using Force Lightning on Punk Rat when I got him pinned.

I returned to reality, panicking. "Oh, God... What's happening to me?!"

"I don't know, but you should go back to California and see Professor Philips. Maybe he knows what's going on," Benjamin suggested. Professor Graham Philips was the British-born genius who co-invented the microchip, and he's also my Jedi master. He lives in Los Angeles and works at Caltech as a lecturer and a researcher in biotechnology.

"Good idea," I agreed.

We ended our conversation and left the janitor's closet for our science class as the morning bell rang.
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