ZebraMan, PenguinGuy, & Eads the Panda

It is always difficult to begin writing a finale story, even if it is just the finale of a subset of stories, and not the story as a whole. So to get pumped, I'm trying to create a playlist of songs that will inspire me. For example, "Black or White" by Michael Jackson. Also, anything by the band Zebra, especially off of their album, "Zebra." I tried listening to a song called "Mr. Zebra," but it began with the line "Hello, Mr. Zee-buh-ra, can I have your sweater, cause its cold, cold, cold in my home, home, home..." That one's not going to work, because I don't like Zebra being pronounced that way, and zebras don't wear sweaters. They usually wear turtlenecks, and don't part with them very easily. I also found this poem:
I asked the Zebra,
Are you black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
And the zebra asked me,
Are you good with bad habits?
Or are you bad with good habits?
Are you noisy with quiet times?
Or are you quiet with noisy times?
Are you happy with some sad days?
Or are you sad with some happy day?
Are you neat with some sloppy ways?
Or are you sloppy with some neat ways?
And on and on and on and on
And on and on he went.
I'll never ask a zebra
About stripes
Again.
But anyway, this will be the last of the A-E stories, and then they may take a new turn in a different direction, possibly one with fewer characters, and titled after continents, or something. Honestly though, there are a ton of characters. If it were the Brady Bunch, they couldn't all fit even with 4x4 squares. Let alone a square in the middle for Alice.

So now, the beginning of the end of the story, where the new characters have met with the old, and are searching for Zebra Man and Penguin Guy in the ominous land of Der. E is for Enjoy:

The Final-E:

The animals were in high spirits, because they had succeeded in traveling to the land of Wolley, and were now on their way to be reunited with their old friends. They were in such good moods that they had all but forgotten that once they found Zebra Man and Penguin Guy, they would have to conquer the evils unleashed by Pandora's Box. But as they walked they talked, as talking animals often do, and the subject moved to the strange turnaround of Piginny and Skaylee.
"So you were an evil pigeon, then you were good, then you were evil, and now you're good again?" Gregle asked Piginny.
Piginny sighed in an exasperated way, then explained to everyone that she would have been nice the whole time, but the Menacing Monkey had used his Malicious Magic to make her act in an evil way (acting in a bitter and sarcastic way had been her own doing). The same was true of Skaylee, and when the castle was crushed ("You're welcome," said James the Killer Whale/the re-embodied, magical Keiko) the magic had stopped working.

Now convinced that the team was 15-strong of bonafide good guys, they continued on to Der, which was somewhere past Nubia. Now if you have gotten a map like I told you to, you would see that moving from Malaysia, through Egypt, will take you quite directly to Canada. Despite James complaints about carrying so many animals across the Atlantic Ocean, he did it anyway because he kind of owed them for crushing the castle they had all been in (although it had also saved them, but the others pretended not to hear him when he said this). And so they reached the frozen, barren, dismal land that is Canada (this may sound harsh, but also Canada doesn't exist, so it's a moot point). Now that they were in Canada, they began to search for Der, but Canada is (for the sake of the story) very large and they were unsuccesful. Nicomous, Tai, and Penguin G were discouraged that their newfound team could not accomplish one of their first goals, but a dark shadow suddenly covered the land.
"Maybe Cali made another mountain appear?" suggested Skunk Boy.
But no mountains were to be seen, and as the crew looked around they managed to see, at the last second, that the sun was being blocked by a large, falling figure. The figure plummeted towards the earth, before opening up a makeshift parachute and gliding right into the faces of Piginny and Mary the Goose.
"Ha!" exclaimed Eads. "Payback! Its not to get hit in the face by flying animals, is it?"
"No," said Piginny.
"No," said Mary the Goose.
"Alright then, looks like you're in need of some help! Let's go to Der! Also, who is your little panda friend?"
Rejuvenated by the sight of their friend, the team followed Eads as he carried Panda Jr. through the Canadian wilderness towards Der.

When they reached the land of Der, marked by a large, bright blue sign that said "Der," they were shocked to see the imposing mountains, narrow ledges, and deep cliffs.
"What happened here?" asked Eads. "Not that any of you would know, since you have not been here before. I was just talking to myself rhetorically. It's stupid, really. I mean, it's not like some omniscient narrator is going to answer me..."
"Okay, we get it, moving on," said Piginny impatiently.
But to help Eads, and to counter Piginny, the narrator explained that Der had been invaded by evil forces and turned into a new hangout for bad guys.
Proceeding with caution, they moved forward, looking for any cues as to the location of Zebra Man or Penguin Guy. Rounding a corner, they saw a huge ostentation (I had to look it up, let's not pay credit for knowing big words when none is due) of peacocks meandering (I accept Visa and Mastercard) towards them.
"Oh snap!" said Nicomous.
"I've got a baaaad feeling about this," said Skunk Boy. (It would have been worth it to add a sheep character just for this line. Maybe later.)
Not ready for a battle in such a dangerous, foreign area, especially against so many deadly looking peacocks, the team retreated into the depths of a nearby cave. Holding their breath as the peacocks passed, Tai asked, "Hey Penguin, are you okay?"
"Yeah."
"Yep."
"You could have just said it once," said Tai.
"I did."
"Obviously."
"What's going on? Stop answering me twice!" Tai hissed in the darkness.
As the peacocks had passed, the team stepped back outside to see what was going on, and were shocked to see TWO Penguin G's emerge from the cave.
"Hey have you guys seen that SNL Doppelganger skit?" asked DalmatiHonn.
"Yeah," they all replied.
"That was funny," concluded DalmatiHonn.
"What's going on?" asked Tai again.
"It's me, Penguin Guy!" said Penguin Guy.
"Hey Penguin Guy!" said Gregle, as he walked up to introduce himself. "My name is Gregle, I've heard a lot about you and..." With a shove, Gregle pushed Penguin Guy back over DK the Rock, and he fell to the ground, tipped in defeat.
"Penguin Tip!" yelled Gregle and somehow highfived DK the Rock.
"Is he dead?" asked Skaylee.
"No, just faking. It's a defense mechanism," explained Eads.

Now convinced that they had found the real Penguin Guy, they continued on to look for Zebra-Man, who along with Smitty the Kitty, was the only member missing from the team. Rounding another corner, they found a small forest clearing, and saw something oddly out of place: the brightly colored beak of a toucan.
"Hey, it's that toucan who led us to the Vault of Boxes!" said DalmatiHonn.
"Yeah, and that's where we opened Pandora's Box..." said Trevor the Lemur.
"But we didn't open the box, it fell to the floor when Cali was chasing that tennis ball..." said Skunk Boy.
"Why'd you throw a tennis ball there?" asked Eads.
"We didn't, someone threw it" said Skunk Boy. "But who..."
It was then that the brightly colored bill opened up and emitted a loud cackle.
"Ha ha, look who showed up. I can't thank you enough for your help down there. Breaking into the vault is very difficult, and I couldn't have done it alone. But since Pandora's Box has been reopened, I've conquered Der, and many, many animals have joined my movement of evil."
"Who are you again?" asked Penguin Guy, eager for some more dialogue after months of silence.
"I am The Terrible Toucan of all that is Troubling. Or Toukee. But that's kind of patronizing." said Toukee.
Cali, tired of the dialogue, and of feeling all of the guilt for crashing into the boxes caused by this bird, began running towards it.
"Not so fast," said Toukee, as he flew into the branch of a nearby tree. "Before we get carried away, why don't we all just calm down and relax?"
As he said this, a spinning rainbow colored disco ball descending into the clearing where the animals were gathered. As the animals gazed into it, they all began to see images of themselves. Or, not quite themselves, because something was very different. All of the black and white animals found themselves shrouded in color for the first time. Piginny's charcoal gray wings, Mary's white feathers, and Gregle were glowing and radiant, like phoenixs. Nicomous had a tall peacock feather sticking out of a sporting cap, which rose nearly 6 feet into the air. DK the Rock was a dazzling emerald, while Skunk Boy had a bright gold stripe instead of his old white one. Eads, Tai, and Panda Jr. had colors to rival the Care Bears, and DalmatiHonn had multicolored, glowing spots. Cali was already the only non-black and white animal, but saw herself with a big MilkBone treat. Trevor the Lemur was shining like ebony, and Penguin Guy and Penguin G were sliding down snow covered hills, but left bright colors on the snow, as if they were painting on the white canvas. James the Killer Whale was not there, because he can't go on land. But he would have seen himself as a bright yellow and green whale, laughing at those stuck up blue whales who thought they were so special because they had one color. Even Lenny the Cow/Pig was entranced by the vision he had of himself surrounded by gold and silver, with a crown of jade. (I just completely exhausted my descriptive adjectives)
"You can have all of what you see," said Toukee soothingly. "What has hanging around with that Zebra-Man ever gotten any of you? All of this 'black-and-white' business, this harsh distinction between good and evil, will never get you anywhere. Come along with me, and I can give you all that you see here."
They started to follow, entranced by the images of themselves as glorious and wealthy, as Toukee carried the disco ball and led them towards the edge of the clearing, where the land dropped off into a deep abyss.

As they were about to reach the abyss, they noticed a slight jump in the hand of Toukee, as his eyes gazed upwards. A split-second later, the disco ball was completely shattered. Startled out of their trances, they looked up to see a zebra advancing toward Toukee as he strugled to regain his composure.
"If you're hanging as my buddy, it don't matter if you're black and white," said Zebra-Man.
"Dang, he's gotten better," Penguin Guy whispered to Eads.
"Yes, yes," stuttered Toukee, "Of course, but, look! A Frisbee!"
As Zebra-Man turned to look, Toukee scrambled backwards and jumped over the abyss, then spread his wings and started to fly away.
"Quick, we have to get him!" yelled Zebra-Man, and the team got up and began to chase him. "Penguin Guy, where's your car?"
"Back at home, we don't have time! And how did you know where we were?"
"I heard someone say you got tipped and wanted to get in on the action. Where's Smitty the Kitty?"
"At home in his room."
So Zebra-Man got on the phone and convinced Smitty the Kitty to come help them (and pick up Penguin Guy's car) even though the others had been unsuccesful at the same task.
Toukee had reached the ocean and was starting to cross towards his hideout in France. Just in time, Smitty pulled up in the Penguinmobile (its a fast car, and can fly). Zebra-Man and Eads jumped into the car, while the Gregle, Mary the Goose, and Piginny continued to fly after Toukee. The others hopped on James' back. In a daring manuever, Zebra-Man took DK the Rock from his fannypack (he had quickly been put inside earlier) and flung it with all his strength at Toukee. Unfortunately, due to an unexpected gust of wind that no one could have foreseen, Zebra-Man had hit Mary the Goose instead.
"There it is" whispered Eads to Penguin Guy.
Not wanting to leave them behing, James the Killer Whale turned and went after them, but not before Gregle, Piginny, and Mary the Goose picked up Nicomous, Tai, and the Penguin G to help with any potential fights. Penguin Guy accelerated the Penguin Mobile and pulled up behind Toukee, who was quickly running out of breath, but was flying over France already. With some homing icicles fired from the Penguinmobile, Penguin Guy hit Toukee and he began spiriling towards the ground. He crashed through some trees and landed in a grassy area. Parking the car, Zebra-Man, Penguin Guy, and Eads jumped out and circled around the dying toucan.
"You're too late," said Toukee feebly, before he mustered up his energy and spat into Zebra-Man's face. I've been wielding the power of Pandora's Box for too long now. Others have joined my side: polar bears, despite being white, are even now increasing their power over the zebras you so love. Turkeys, always nasty birds, are gaining in strength and numbers. Weevils have evil right in their name, so they are obviously bad. You can kill me, but it is too late for the rest of the world. And, too late for you."
For with his dying speech, he had given his evil troops of peacocks the time to surround our heroes. Preparing for a final stand, Zebra-Man, Penguin Guy, and Eads the Panda shared a fist bump and prepared to go down fighting, for ostentations of ostentations now surrounded them.
Zebra-Man, while roaming through Der, had learned that zebras can camouflage themselves, and so ran quickly around Eads and Penguin Guy, creating a confusing backdrop for the peacocks, while Penguin Guy fired snowballs into the hordes, and Eads punched any peacocks in the face that came too close. As they began to tire, they remembered once again that they could summon their friend, the Siberian Tiger (of Siberia), and did so. With a roar that made the earth tremble like a waterbed in an earthquake, the Siberian Tiger swatted at the nearby peacocks, but he too began to tire. When hope was beginning to fade, and it looked like the end of the Zebra-Man Franchise, another Penguin and Panda fell from the sky, along with a tiny mouse. The flying forces had caught up with them, along with James the Killer Whale, and now all were joining the fight. After a valient effort, it was still an impossible battle, for the peacocks had been joined by some of the nearby weevils. Taking a sharp peck to the head, Zebra-Man fell to the ground, but as he lay there, was confused by what he saw. Amongst the peacock legs and nasty weevil feet, there were other shapes he didn't recognize. Claws, hooves, and... gray tree trunks? Sitting up, he noticed that amidst all the confusion there WERE other animals there that he hadn't recognized. Raccoons, goats, rabbits, sheep, elephants (gray counts as black and white), and rhinos had arrived.
"Why are they here?" he yelled at Nicomous, who was fighting nearby.
"We tried the whole 'summon a tiger' thing, but no tiger showed up! I guess this happened instead!"
Now, with the power of all black and white animals fighting as one, the battle shifted and the peacocks and weevils began to worry. Beginning to retreat, few escaped, and before long the clearing was quiet, as hundreds of peacock feathers fell to the ground like snow.

Zebra-Man addressed the multitude of gathered animals:
"Thank you all for your help. Apparently not even 18 characters can defeat evil by themselves. But Toukee was right about one thing, that evil has grown stronger since he unleashed the evils of Pandora's Box. I think it is time we return and conquer the evil in our own lands."
"And that goes for us too," he said to his crime fighters, who were gathered together in front of the crowd. "We all have our reasons for becoming crime-fighters, and we can't lose sight of those."
"Good luck to all of you!" he said, addressing the crowd again. "We are always here if you need help during these uncertain times."
And with that, we stepped down from in front of the crowd and gathered together with his friends.

Short-Term Epilogue:
Nicomouse found a mirror in a nearby palace in France, which was given to him as a gift from the grateful King (of France). He was also given a stepping stool made of pure gold so he could see into the mirror for himself.

The Summary of Illumination:

In C Story (the sequel to B story and prequel to D story, if you were wondering), Gregle the Eagle and Lenny the Cow/Pig continued their journey to the land of Wolley to find a mystical power that will help them defeat evil. Along the way:
^The characters conversed, and Fond Memories were laughed at.
^Cali accidentally(?) found the land of Wolley by eating some Snodgrass.
^After eating Snodgrass themselves, the others joined her and climbed a large snowy mountain while having a Joyful Time.
^At the top, the group discovered a cave which contained a stone statues of a large penguin and panda.
^The panda and penguin (and tiny mouse) were brought to life, bringing the current crime-fighting team up to 10 animals: Gregle the Eagle, Lenny the Cow/Pig, Trevor the Lemur, Skunk Boy, DalmatiHonn, Cali, Panda Jr., Tai the Panda, the Penguin-G, and Nicomouse.

And now, the moment you hadn't been waiting for until now...
D'Story.

With the appearence of three new animals, very closely resembling their old friends, the team thought it would be worthwhile to listen to what the newbies had to say. And the rest is his story (actually, thier story, but that is not a clever play on words).

"Well, one day I was watching myself flex in the mirror," began Nicomous, "but I can't get up high enough to see in the mirror, because I am so small..."
"So he came to ask us to lift him up," interupted Penguin G, "like we usually do, but when we got to the bathroom..."
"The mirror was gone!" squeked Nicomous with such excitement that he toppled over.
"Right. Then Tai told us: 'There is an ancient Panda-legend among pandas that there is one ancient panda, who lives atop Panda Mountain at the center of Panda Forest, and his knowledge is the greatest among all pandas. Maybe he could help us.'"
"I did say that," said Tai.
"That sounds familiar," thought the other 7 characters.
"So we began to head to Panda Forest, which is a long long way from Worshington," continued Penguin G.
"You mean Washington?" asked Gregle.
"Right, that's what I said. Worshinton. W-A-S-H-I-N-G-T-O-N. Moving on, we were on our way but got into a fight on the way with some nasty weevils."
"It was pretty cool though," said Nicomous, "so cool, it should be described in third-person."

The Fight:
Nicomous, Penguin G, and Tai the Panda were walking down a street when the heard the ominous sound of something weevil-y. Nicomous sprang into action, sinking his tiny mouth teeth into th nearest weevil, which is nasty, because weevils are gross bugs, if you didn't know. But he did it anyway because it was a fight and now his side was winning. Penguin G got a running start and, sliding on his belly like a kid on a waterslide, bowled down numerous weevils. Tai the panda took a big bite of rice (Tai the Panda got his strength from eating rice, not bamboo) and then unleashed a massive panda punch that completely vaporized the nearest weevil. And that is what happened.

"It was awesome," continued Nicomous. "And then this Zebra and Penguin came down and started talking to us, saying how cool the fight was and how they fight crime, and..."
"WHAT?!" exclaimed 5 of the animals. Cali had just barked, and Panda Jr. had made a funny noise, that kind of sounded like "what?!" but nobody was really quite sure.
"Yeah a Zebra. I think his name was Zebra-Man, and the Penguin was..."
"Penguin Guy," said Penguin G. "I don't know why I remembered it.
"There is no way that was Zebra-Man! We saw him at the castle, after it had been crushed. It can't have been him," concluded Trevor the Lemur.
"How many zebras do you know that fight crime?" asked Tai.
"None,: the five answered.
"I mean, how many zebras do you know that THINK they can fight crime?"
"Just one," said DalmatiHonn. "It must have been him."

To ruin the suspense, it had been him. And Penguin Guy. And after meeting Tai, Nicomous, and the Penguin G, the five of them continued to Panda Mountain, which is where ZebraMan and Penguin Guy had been headed anyway, because they were hoping that the ancient panda could give them some insight on why it seemed that evil had returned. When they reached the mountain, they found the ancient panda and asked him for advice. Being old and crazy, the ancient panda had mistaken them for a group of cow/pigs, and delivered the same prophecy that Eads had given to Gregle and Lenny in A Story.
"I dont see how this wil get our mirror back," said Nicomous sullenly, but they decided to split up, with the three newbie heading to Wolley while Zebra Man and Penguin Guy would go to the reputably more dangerous Der, due to their years of experience.

"So we came this far," said Penguin G, "because Tai accidentally ate some Snodgrass, and we came into this cave and then magically got turned into stone."
"You came here to look for a power that will unite the new and old, and turned into stone, thereby becoming the new power we were sent to find? Wow, you literally self-fulfilled that prophecy," said Skunk Boy (and that is where the expression comes from. The more you know.)
"I guess so," said Tai. "But now that you found us, shouldn't we go look for Zebra Man and Penguin Guy?"
"Yeah, we have to," said Lenny. "We were going to Der anyway, and they must be the old power we have to find!"
"First though," said DalmatiHonn, "I'm tired of just journeying and never fighting, like in the good ole days. Plus we need to work together as a team, and see what the baby Panda can do. Let's go pone some Nubians."

So they traveled to Nubia, which is en route to Der (get a map), and found a shady looking neighborhood. Nubians are not to be confused with Nubians, which are a group of people near Egypt (I have to keep all my media/endorsement options open). The Nubians in this story are very Angry and Disagreeable Bears, and they are mean and if they have a choice, prefer to make the more evil and less good choice. And as our good guys approached, the fight began.

Another Fight:
It had been awhile since their last fight, but the team wa motivated by the hope of reuniting with their old friends and fixing the evils of Pandora's Box. Cali and DalmatiHonn lulled the Nubians into a false sense of security by rolling on their backs, while Trevor the Lemur purred and rubbed against their legs. This sentimental moment was broken by a belly-sliding Penguin G, who bowled over most of the awe-struck Nubians. This started the all-out brawl. Gregle the Eagle attacked with his razor sharp talons, while Nicomous, perched on Lenny's shoulders, was punching them in the jeans. Skunk Boy had a newfound talent, one that went beyond scratching at bad guy's feet. This time, he also scratched their shins and calves. While Tai held up Nubians, Panda Jr. knocked them to the ground, while laughing hysterically. And this process continued. So went the first battle against the Nubians, and their first battle together.

Afterwards, while recapping the high points of the battle play-by-play, the team was surprised to see another figure begin to emerge from a shadow, slowly clapping.
"Well done. I'm surprised you newbs still have what it takes to take on those Nubians."
"Say that again to our face!" yelled Nicomouse, angry at the hidden insult.
"I will," said the figure as it stepped into the sunlight.

COMMERCIAL!!
(I'm just getting ready for the "Zebra-Man TV Hour." It shoud be airing soon. Check your newpaper for local listings.)

"No way!" cried Skunk Boy, DalmatiHonn, and Trevor the Lemur. Cali had whimpered and crawled behing Tai.
It was Piginny.
"Yes, it's true: said Piginny. "And I'm not alone."
The team gaped as Skaylee also came up to join Piginny.
"Th.. this isn't... how could this...?" sputtered DalmatiHonn.
"We won this fight once, we can win it again!" said Skunk Boy bravely.
"Yes, but before you do, there's something you should know," said Piginny. "We're good now!"
"What?!" said all of the characters again (even Panda Jr.).
"Yeah, sorry about the creepy entrance, it's all part of this stupid "Zebra-Man TV Hour" thing. We couldn't just say it and save you all the suspense."
"How can we believe you?" asked Trevor the Lemur.
"Check this out," said Piginny, and then there was a 45 second montage of Piginny and Skaylee helping in a community garden, reading to underpriveleged youth, and feeding the homeless (it's cooler on TV).
"I'm convinced," said Penguin G.
"Why is no one we thought was dead actually dead!?" asked Skunk Boy.
"Two reasonsss," said Skaylee, "One, in all great literature, and made for TV short stories, no one actually dies. Look it up. Two, there is an ancient legend among whales, that if a whale sacrifices his life for his friends, then he will become one with the spirit of Keiko, and because Keiko can never die, the whale and the friends he saved can return and live again. Look it up."
"So if you are back, and Zebrs Man and Penguin Guy are back, where are..."
"Hey, we're still good!" said Mary the Goose and James the Killer Whale (in a nearby pond). They had kind of missed their cue. DK the Rock said: "The crafty rabbit has three different entrances to its lair."
And they all laughed.
"What about Smitty the Kitty (the lemur)," asked Trevor the Lemur (the cat).
"He's in his room," said Piginny. "We'll worry about that later. What should we do now?"
"Let's go to Der. This is fun and all, but I still dn't have a mirror," said Nicmous.
And they all laughed, while the fifteen of them walked, flew, crawled, swam, slithered, scurried, and however-DK-the-Rock-moved (without Zebra Man's fannypack) on towards the Land of Der.

D End

In order to clarify a few important points of past stories, and as a great way to start writing without thinking of an introduction, here is a re-cap of the A+B stories ->

After hours of flying and walking toward an unknown destination, Gregle and Lenny stopped for a water break alongside a stream. They had since passed south out of Panda Forest and were traveling through dense woodlands, presumably somewhere in Malaysia (obviously).
"I am so tired!" complained Lenny. "My feet hurt, I'm hungry, and I stubbed my toe on a tree stump back there."
"Stop whining! You are worse than the evil Piginny of legend," said Gregle.
"Who?" asked Lenny.
"I never told you that story?" Gregle said. "Piginny was once an evil pigeon that whined constantly, and roamed the lands of China and Canada. Legend has it that a great zebra, penguin, panda, whale, rock, goose, dalmation, lemur, kitten, dog, and skunk managed to destroy her and restored peace to our world."
"I don't believe in that stuff. That's crazy," said Lenny the mystical talking cow/pig.
"Wait a minute," said Gregle, "Didn't we just talk to a mystical panda and hear about having to protect the world from evil? And what's that?!"
Gregle, using his superior eyesight, had noticed some tracks on the forest floor near the stream. Upon closer inspection, he and Lenny were able to distinguish the distinct tracks of two dogs, a cat, and a skunk.
"None of these animals I recognize are native to this region, and they would never travel so closely together like this," deduced Gregle.
"Well, let's follow them. We might as well, seeing as how we have no idea where we are going," suggested Lenny.

So Gregle the Eagle and Lenny followed the tracks for three days and nights. Finally, soon after night had fallen, they heard the sound of hushed voices and wood crackling in a fire. Gregle the Eagle listened closely and relayed what he heard to Lenny the cow/pig, whose ears were not nearly as fine-tuned. And this is what he heard:
"This doesn't make any sense at all! If this happens any more we are all done for good! I can't take this anymore!' Another voice intervened: 'We all have to just relax. This is what she wants us to do! Between us we can figure out how to handle it!' The first voice came back, louder and angrier than before: 'No! I am done trying to handle it. That was the third shoe of mine she has ruined! And she barks all the time for no reason! Either she goes or I go!' Then a new voice: 'Shh! Quiet! I am sure she is very sorry, and it won't happen again."
"Sounds like they are having a pretty serious argument," said Lenny. "What do you want to do?"

But Gregle never had a chance to respond, for the muffled sound of arguing was shattered by an ear-splitting series of barks, a loud "There it is again!" and a crying baby. The next minute Gregle and Lenny found themselves being jumped on by a golden-red dog, who was being chased by another dog and skunk.
"Whoa, who are you?" asked the dog, a dalmatian.
So Gregle and Lenny, feeling that they could trust other talking animals that seemed as out of place as they did, told them that they were sent by a panda to find the land of Wolley.
"Crazy," said the skunk, "Maybe you should come share the fire with us. We need to talk."

Once around the fire, introductions were made. Gregle and Lenny were shocked to find that the names of their hosts were DalmatiHonn, Trevor the Lemur ("But aren't you a cat?"), Skunk Boy, Cali, and a small panda named Panda Junior.
"You mean you are the animals from the stories?" asked Gregle.
"Yeah," said DalmatiHonn. "I am surprised you remember, that was a while ago."
"But there was only one panda in those stories, right? Wouldn't that be the one we met?" asked Gregle.
"Yeah, that is kind of a long tale," explained Skunk Boy. "But probably not long enough for its own story, so I guess we will tell it now."

Their Story, or Why There Are Two Pandas, One of Which is in Malaysia:
"After the evil Piginny had been defeated, we had a hard time finding things to do. Evil had vanished from the world, crime was down, and times were tough for crime-fighting talking animals. As happy as we were that evil was gone, it makes our lives kind of meaningless, and definitely not something anyone would want to write about. We decided that we had to move out of our crime fighting den in search of excitement elsewhere. A few weeks later we reached Scotland, where we assumed there would be way more excitement. There we met this crazy toucan who said he was bored too, and he told us that he had found a map to the legendary Vault of Boxes. These boxes are filled with all kinds of treasures, and they happened to be just across the channel in France. He said he couldn't go because it was time for him to start migrating, but we had nothing else to do so we took his map and managed to find the vault. It was surprisingly easy, I mean, we are crime-fighting animals with mad skills, and we got into the vault. Then, from nowhere, a tennis ball flew (Narrator time-out for brownies, I guarantee this will get more interesting after these are digested...mmm) through the air and Cali went after it, she smashed right into one of the shelves and multiple boxes crashed down. One of those boxes, Panda's Box, happened to...
"Wait, don't you mean Pandora's Box?" asked Gregle. "I thought for sure that was where this story was going."
"No," said DalmatiHonn, "Panda's Box, that was where Panda Junior came from. Just listen to the story."
"As I was saying... some of the boxes fell to the ground and opened, which is where Panda Junior came from. Unfortunately, the box next to it, Pandora's Box (he glared at Gregle) also opened, which is why evil is back in the world. Everyone has been living without it for so long that its sudden reappearance is causing considerable trouble, and that is why we need to go get help from something in Wolley and Der. The End."

"How did you know about Wolley and Der?" asked Lenny. "Did the little panda tell you?"
"No he can't talk yet. This isn't our first adventure you know," said Trevor the Lemur (the cat). "Der and Wolley are the two most mystical places in the world, and we know that to re-contain this new more powerful evil we will need all the help we can get. We don't know what is there, but something will help us."
"So should we get going?" asked Gregle.
"Yeah, let's do this," said everyone in attendance.
Panda Junior gurgled in agreement.

In the world of on-line literature, there are really only two things that deserve to be written about. They are, of course, eagles and cow/pigs. (Cow/pigs are one thing). Therefore, since I want this story to have deserved to be written, it will include both an eagle and a cow/pig.

Once upon a time there was an eagle and a cow/pig. And once upon a time they had a fateful conversation:
"Hey cow/pig" said the eagle, "I'm bored."
"Me too," said the cow/pig, "What shall we do?"
Then they had a fateful lull in the conversation.
And then the conversation fatefully resumed
"Let's go do something adventurous" said the eagle.
"Sweet," said the cow/pig, "what shall we do?"
"Let's go for a hike" said the eagle.

So the two decided to go for a hike. The eagle, despite having the ability to fly, decided to walk alongside his friend the cow/pig. Finding a nearby forest, the two began to wander aimlessly through it, occasionally pausing to admire the beauty of the sunlight shining through the leaves of the forest.
"Look at the way the sun shines through the leaves of this forest" said the eagle.
"Yes, I was just admiring that" said the cow/pig.
In their wandering they reached the base of a mountain, and began to hike up it. After hiking for quite some time, they reached the top of the mountain, and were surprised to find a small, seemingly uninhabited, shack.
"Wow, that's weird," said the eagle, "why is there a bamboo shack on top of this mountain in the middle of a forest?"
"I don't know," said the cow/pig, "why do you park in a driveway and drive in a parkway?"
"Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected?" said the deep booming voice of a large panda as he came out of the bamboo shack.
"Yeah, it does" said the eagle, who was brave enough not to be frightened by the unexpected appearance of a large panda with a booming voice. (The cow/pig was not as brave, and had hidden behind a bamboo grove at the first sound of the panda's footsteps.
"Are you alone, eagle?" said the big panda. "This magical bamboo forest, also known as Panda Forest, has a powerful spell on it that only allows people in the presence of a panda to reach the base of, and ascend, Panda Mountain. But you are not a panda."
"I'm not alone either" said the eagle. "Hey cow/pig, get out here."
The cow/pig stepped out of his hiding place and sheepishly (or cow-piggishly) looked up at the panda.
"Oh geeze!" said the panda, "Is that a cow/pig? The legend is actually that you need a panda or a cow/pig to get through the forest and up the mountain, but we pandas have always assumed that cow/pigs don't exist, so we shortened the name from Panda and Cow/Pig Forest to Panda Forest. Wait a minute, I'll be right back."
The eagle and the cow/pig looked at one another, and shrugged. Then the eagle had an idea...
"Okay, I'm back," said the panda as he stepped out of his shack. "Where are you guys?"
Then the eagle and the cow/pig jumped out from behind opposite sides of the shack. The eagle flew up full speed into the panda's belly, and the panda fell back over the cow/pig.
"First EVER Giant Fat Panda Tip!!!" said the eagle, as he high-fived the cow/pig.
"That was unnecessary" said the panda. "Anyway, I didn't always live up here by myself. There was once another panda, ancienter than I, who lived on this mountain in this shack. He passed away last Tuesday, but he left me a note that he said I couldn't open until I met one of the legendary cow/pigs. I figured he was old and crazy, which he was, but I also figured he was old and crazy because I didn't believe in cow/pigs. First of all, who has ever heard of a cow/pig? And, they supposedly come from Canada, which for many years I didn't believe in either. But now here you are, so I opened the note."
"What does it say?" asked the eagle.
"As I was going to say, before I was tipped, the note reads "A time of great evil has passed, I've been drinking green tea all day, but a time is coming when the great evil will return, we just ran over a small bus, and when that evil comes, pools are great for holding water, new and old powers will need to unite to fight it, ultimate-punch."
"That panda was crazy" said the eagle.
"Regardless of that, I believe that you are this new power, a demonstrated by your bravery, legendary-ness, and tipping abilities. You must travel to the distant and ancient lands of Wolley and Der to find the tools to summon the old powers and defeat this rising evil."

"Alright, I have nothing else to do," said the eagle. "You in?" he asked the cow/pig.
"Yep" said the cow/pig.
"Good luck," said the panda. "Go that way."
And so the eagle and cow/pig set off towards Wolley.
"Wait," said the panda, "what are your names, so that this story may be recorded in legend?"
"Gregle," said the eagle, "Gregle the Eagle."
"Lenny," said the cow/pig, "Just Lenny."
"About time," said the panda.
"Who are you?" yelled Gregle, who was by this point quite far away from the panda on the mountain.
"I am Eads the Panda," said the panda. "Good Luck."

To Be Continued...

Pre-Preface:
As this is the final zebra-man story that may ever be written, it needs a preface:

Preface:
This may be the final Zebra-Man story ever written. As a finale, the bar is set pretty high (except for those of you who watched the final episode of 24, in which case the bar could easily be jumped over by James the Killer Whale, even if he was on land). There may be epilogues or prologues later, but I do not know about that. So, consider this to be a very long and (hopefully adequately) ridiculous farewell.

Face:
Why do they call it a preface if they don't call the body of the story a face? Anyway, this is where the recap will happen, using the unbelielivably excited dancing panda (as a replacement to traditional bullet-points) in the "fresh out of the oven," brand-new, dancing panda recap method:



! That panda is unbelievably excited, and distracting, so try to stay focused. The last story began, as many of these stories do, with the characters trying to figure out what to do next. James the Killer Whale said he saw an island with monkeys, and Piginny, Mary the Goose, and Penguin Guy scouted ahead to find that, indeed, monkeys inhabited the island.

! Also, a skunk named Skunk Boy was found on the island, a former member of DalmatiHonn's, James the Killer Whale's, and Trevor the Lemur's crime-fighting team.

! Zebra-Man decided that the team should build a wooden zebra, and Eads came up with the original and brilliant idea of hiding inside of it, then getting out of it inside the monkey castle to find the Menacing Monkey of all that is malicious.

! The plan worked.

! Just as the team was about to capture the Menacing Monkey, he laughed at them, insulted them, and threatened them, then vanished... ... ... ... (the dots symbolize suspense...) ...

Chapter 4
"Well, that was not what I had in mind" said Penguin guy. "I had visualized an epic battle, ending with us winning against all odds, and illustrating the power of good over evil. But instead he just disappeared."
"So now what do we do?" said Skunk Boy. "I know I am new to the team, but it seems like we should come up with some sort of clever solution to track down where the monkey might be, and who is helping him."
"Yeah, right" Piginny scoffed. "When have we ever devised a clever plan to track down our next destination? Sooner or later a new character or a magical sign will appear that will tell us what to do. That is how we got almost every single character on our team! All we have to do is sit around long enough and something will happen."
"There is one other way," began Eads the Panda. "there is an ancient Panda-legend among pandas that there is one ancient panda, who lives atop Panda Mountain at the center of Panda Forest, and his knowledge is the greatest among all pandas. Maybe he could help us."
"Isn't this the same as a new character showing up?" whined Piginny.
"Did you hear something?" said James the Killer Whale.
"No I don't think so" said Zebra-Man.
Piginny's whining fell on fake-deaf ears, so all the characters got on James the Killer Whale's back and went to China, which is where Panda Forest and Panda Mountain are located.


To make a short story shorter, the team was able to easily traverse through Panda Forest with the guidance of Eads the panda, who knew the land well. (A brief warning: if you are not accompanied by a panda you should NOT traverse through Panda Forest, you will not make it. Seriously. I tried. And failed. Because I didn't have a panda with me. True story. And by true I mean I just made that up.) Then the long ascent up Panda Mountain began. It actually only took 10 minutes, but the whining from Piginny made it seem much longer. The thin air on panda Mountain made it impossible for the flying animals to fly, which was good because otherwise they could just fly up to the ancient panda, which isn't nearly as epic as hiking 10 minutes up to the top.
"Ancient Panda, are you in here?" said Eads the Panda as he opened the door to the bamboo shack at the top of Panda mountain.
There was a rustling sound in the back of the shack, and a huge panda with a long beard came into view.
"Great" said Zebra-Man, "Listen, we need to know where to find an evil monkey and another, even eviler animal of some sort.
But the Ancient Panda made no sound.
"Awesome" said Piginny "We fly all the way up this HUGE mountain, which takes forever, and my feet hurt, and the stupid panda doesn't even talk to us. Meanwhile a stupid monkey is running around somewhere and we have no idea how to get there! Maybe we should consult the talking rock that never makes any sense! At least he says something!"
"Yeah, that might work" said Zebra-Man, and he pulled DK the rock out of his fannypack and set him on the ground.
"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." said DK the rock.
"A thorn defends the rose, harming only those who would steal the blossom." said the Ancient Panda.
"Oh snap" said Smitty the Kitty (the Lemur). "I did not actually think that would work."
DK the rock and the Ancient Panda continued to speak to each other in ancient proverbs for hours, until finally DK the rock turned (use your imagination on how it moves) and said "So basically he says we need to walk down this mountain and out of the forest heading north, then turn left at the rock that looks like a squirrel, and then left again at the tree with four apples hanging from its lowest branch, and we will be there."
"Boo Ya" said Zebra-Man, and the team thanked the ancient panda and began following his directions to reach the monkeys castle.


They reached the spot where the monkey and his "powerful ally" had built their castle, somewhere in Northern China, and set up camp. It had been a long day, so they decided to leave the whole conquering evil thing until the next morning.
The next morning they began to make their plans. "How about we build a giant wooden zebra..." said Zebra-Man, "then hid inside of it and jumped out once inside his castle... oh wait, we already did that once."
"Coming up with original ideas keep getting harder" said Eads the Panda.
"We could always resort to unoriginal ones" said Mary the Goose. "Trevor the Lemur, Skunk Boy and Cali, go look for another character to add to the team.
"You won't have to," said Piginny. "Look over there."
And so they looked, and saw a snake coiled on the ground. Zebra-man jumped about three feet in the air, then composed himself and said "Umm, hi snake. Do you know a way into the castle/ do you want to join our team?"
"Yessss and yessss," said the snake, "My name is Skaylee and I would be more than happy to show you a sssecret path in to the cassstle."
So the team followed Skaylee to a small hole dug into the ground. "The panda will have to ssstay" said Skaylee.
"Yeah, let's make fun of the panda some more" said Eads, "He is so fat he can't fit. Ha ha. Fat panda can't fit into the little hole. Whatever. I will be at the camp eating if you need me."
And so Eads went back to guard the camp.
"In we go" said Zebra-man, and the team, minus Eads, descended into the tunnel behind Skaylee.

After what felt like days of crawling through endless dark tunnels, the team finally heard Skaylee say "We are here," and each crawled out of the hole, blinking in the bright light that surrounded them. They finally regained their vision and found themselves in a tiny storage room, with light pouring in from a window, with Skaylee nowhere to be seen.
"Where did she go?" asked Penguin guy.
"Maybe she knew how dangerous this is and decided that she had helped enough" said Piginny.
"Well, as they say, no point crying over lost snakes" said Zebra-man.
("Who says that?" asked Penguin-Guy.)
"She got us this far, I say we keep going" said Smitty the Kitty.
So the team slowly peered out of the door of the storage room, and seeing the hallway empty, stepped out. They followed the long hallway, turning randomly at each junction, until they finally reached a large room with a domed ceiling.
"Where is everyone?" said Skunk Boy, "It seems way too empty for the stronghold of the source of all evil, something even more evil than the menacing monkey and scorpion king."
As he said this a group of no less than 300 intimidating-looking monkeys rounded the corner from the other side of the domed room. The monkeys saw them and headed towards them, menacingly.
"Let's head to the hallway' said Zebra-man, "to the place where their numbers will give them no advantage!"
And so in the hallway an epic battle took place. Cali, Trevor the Lemur, and DalmatiHonn used their fierce teeth to dominate some of the monkeys. Smitty the Kitty's death galres stopped many of the monkeys in their tracks. Penguin-Guy turned no less than 15 monkeys into "Monkey-sicles" (Zebra-man invented the term, and he is not good at clever or witty phrases). Skunk Boy did what skunks do best in fights against monkeys, using his claws to scratch their feet as they walked by. Mary the Goose used her beak to clamp some monkey fingers, and DK the rock had engaged 3 monkeys in a deep philosophical conversation before they met Zebra-Man's hind hooves in their faces.
After the 200 intimidating monkeys had been taken care of, the team sat catching their breath
"We can't keep taking on wave after wave of monkeys" said Penguin Guy. "We need to find their leader and take him out before he sends another group."
No one disagreed with this, so they went carefully back to the domed room and went into the hallway on the other side. After following it for some time they reached another large throne room, and saw in the throne at the end of the room the Menacing Monkey King, asleep.
"Is he really asleep?" asked Mary the Goose "You think he would learn not to do that"
"He still thinks we don't know where he is" said Smitty the Kitty.
"Well, lets go wake him up and teach him not to mess with the Black and White if you can't put up a fight" said Zebra-man.
"You know, you are getting a little better at the catchy sayings" said Penguin Guy.
"Thanks" said Zebra-Man.


They went up to the Monkey king and gave hima not so light rap on the forehead. His eyes shot open and he grinned his horrible old monkey smile.
"Well," he said "Even without the fat panda you made it past my monkey army. You must have fought them in a place where their numbers had no advantage. Impressive. But I would have thought you smarter than to ever challenge me again, espcially after I showed you what I am capable of. And you haven't even met some of my friends. Allow me to introduce to you Piginny, The True Queen of Evil, Maliciousness, Trickery, and Downright Meanness."


The animals heard a noise and turned behind them to see Piginny, Skaylee, and Zony the zony (http://www.visitcumbria.com/pen/ostrich-zony1.jpg) standing in front of at least 500 monkeys. At seeing Piginny, Cali growled and jumped forward, jaws open wide. Piginny merely flexed her wing outward, sending Cali sprawling to the ground with a whimper. After staring at Cali with contempt, she looked at Zebra-Man and the team. "Don't look so surprised," said Piginny. "Surely you must have seen this coming. Did you not notice my constant desire to prevent you from continuing on your journey? The whining, the sarcasm, the doubt, all of it was meant to turn you away from reaching my palace. When I realized that you were going to somehow be lucky enough to reach it, I decided that it would be better to draw you here and finish you all off at once. And it will be awfully diffcult for you to beat me without your giant panda friend, won't it? I knew you would be stupid enough to follow any new character into a secret passageway, anything magical and unbelievable enough to actually work. So I had Skaylle lead us through a conveniently narrow passageway into an abandoned room. Stupid enough for you to believe it. You even met me as I was working for an evil pigeon! With you out of the way there will be nothing left to stop me from taking over the rest of the world. I have to concede that you caused me considerable trouble taking out the Scorpion and Lemur kings, but they are replaceable. Oh, and I have almost been so rude as to forget to make some introductions. You may be wondering who this is, Zebra-man. Allow me to introduce Zony the zony, my second in command. If you try to resist my monkey army I am sure he will be able to help persuade you otherwise. I am now going to present you with the choice of simply surrendering now and saving all of us a lot of trouble, or doing the whole "we're good guys" thing and embarassing yourself. So...?"
Zebra-man turned and looked at those standing behind him; Penguin-Guy, Mary the Goose, DalmatiHonn, DK the rock, Smitty the Kitty, Trevor the Lemur, and Skunk Boy, and at the spot where Cali lay. All of them had helped the team in their quest for good, and had become not only his team members but his friends. He could not let them down now, they would not go down without a fight.
"I think Cali had the right idea" said Zebra-Man, and his team nodded in agreement. Turning to face the army of monkeys, they leaped/flew/scurried into the most epic battle of all time.
Zebra-Man charged at Zony with his head lowered, and caught him by surprise with a rib-cracking headbutt. Zony stood back up, and reared up on his hind legs, catching Zebra-man in the face with his front hooves multiple times. Zebra-Man fell backward, but was quickly up on his feet again, and trying to gain traction on the floor, lunged forward once more. Zony did the same, and as their heads collided both saw stars. But Zebra-Man and Zony both continued to dig forward, shoving their heads into one another. Zebra-man glanced to his side and saw Cali lying on the floor, Penguin-Guy fruitlessly trying to shoot Piginny out of the sky with his ice powers, while she merely dodged them and taunted Penguin-Guy. He saw Trevor the Lemur barely dodge one of Skaylee's fangs, while Smitty the Kitty was valiantly fighting off 4 monkeys. Digging deep, he gave one last ditch lunge forward, and caught Zony off balance. Zony rolled backwards, lying face up. Zebra-man wasted no time in using his hooves to finish the fight.
Zebra-man stood up and began limping towards the malicious Monkey, who was watching the fight with a smile on his face.
"Been enjoying it, have you?" said Zebra-man to the monkey. The monkey turned, and the last thing he saw was the light glinting off of Zebra-man's front hoof. (One thing zebra's are good at is using their front hooves as clubs. Zebra-Man, exhausted from the fight with Zony and the effort of attacking the Malicious Monkey was only able to take care of 5 more monkeys before collapsing on the floor, next to Cali. Penguin-Guy saw this and summoned all of his power to form the largest ice ball ever made by a magical penguin. He flew up next to Piginny, who was no longer taunting him, and with a yell threw the ice ball. It hit her from point-blank range, and both penguin-Guy, from total exhaustion, and Piginny, from the giant ice ball, fell from the top of the large room to the floor. The rest of the team was being overrun by the swarms of evil monkeys still entering the room, and it seemed that all hope was lost when a large hole appeared in the wall. Eads the Panda stood in the newly made opening, and with a panda-roar made his way into the castle. Swatting monkeys left and right he reached Trevor the Lemur, DalmatiHonn, and Skunk Boy, who were caught in the grips of especially large monkeys. Easily taking care of the monkeys he grabbed trevor the Lemur, DalmatiHonn, and Skunk Boy and said,
"A fight without me? You should know better than that. Anyway, we have to get out of here soon. James and I knew something was amiss, and he has a plan, but we don't want to be here to see it. Where are the others?"
They looked around the room and saw Zebra-man, Penguin Guy, Cali, and Piginny on the ground. Mary the Goose and Smitty the Kitty were in the middle of a very large group of monkeys.
Eads yelled to them "Mary the Goose, Smitty the Kitty! We have to get out of here!" But they didn't hear him, and even if they had they couldn't have gotten out of the crowd in time. Eads the Panda grabbed Skunk boy, Trevor the Lemur, and DalmatiHonn and ran outside. Cali had come around after the hit from Piginny and followed them out. As they left they saw the shadow of James the Killer Whale, who had generated a huge amount of speed and had launched himself out of the ocean, headed towards the castle. He missed the castle by only a few yards, but the aftershock of the hit (not because he was fat, but because of all of his momentum) shook the walls of the castle, and the domed room caved in on itself, crushing or trapping everyone inside.

Eads the Panda went in with DalmatiHonn, Skunk Boy, Cali, and Trevor the Lemur after the dust had settled. Tossing great boulders aside, he found Zebra-Man, Penguin-Guy, Smitty the Kitty, and Mary the Goose, and lay them outside of the castle next to James the Killer Whale. (Dk the rock was harder to find, since there were a lot of rocks, but he was still next to James the Killer Whale) Then he walked in silence with what was left of the team back to Panda Forest, where he had decided he would remain.
"Someone needs to keep that old ancient panda company" he said. "Listen. DalmatiHonn, Trevor the lemur, Skunk Boy, and Cali, for now evil has been defeated. The Monkey King was a very powerful enemy, and with Piginny on his side he had become all but unstoppable. Though he is gone now, there is no guarantee things will stay that way. There are greater forces at work here than our own, and others may be swayed to follow in his footsteps. it will be up to you to stop them if they do. Good has conquered evil once, but it may need to happen again. You know where to find me, just a ten minute hike up panda mountain. You will always be a friend of the pandas, and will not need to be accompanied to reach me. Good luck to all of you."

And with those words he disappeared into the forest. DalmatiHonn, Trevor the Lemur, Skunk Boy, and Cali looked at one another and set off together towards the sun set, awaiting whatever fate or luck brought their way.

THE END
(Boo Ya)

Boo Ya... Here it comes... Wait for it... Chapter 3!
(that was exciting, eh?)

The Story Recap, using the all-new/improved/original/never-before-seen fancy hypnotic spiral format...

The last story began with the team going to a random, seemingly deserted island, to find DalmatiHonn's friend, whose name he had forgotten.

Smitty the Kitty was captured, and then rescued, and in the meantime good times were had, laughs were laughed, and eye rolls made things explode (compliments of Piginny's death glare)

Trevor the Lemur (the cat), was rescued, and Cali (the Evil King of Dogs) was convinced to join the team, though she had to promise never to speak again (for obvious reasons).

And now, the story continues...

CHAPTER 3

Now that the crime-fighting team had upped its numbers (yet again), they were quite possibly almost ready to do something that would move the plot line forward.
"What do we do now?" asked Penguin Guy.
"I don't know" said Zebra-Man.
Apparently, they were not yet quite possibly almost ready to do something to move the plot line forward.
"I have an idea," said Piginny, "how about we go after the stupid monkey king we have talked about defeating FOREVER, instead of sitting here wallowing in our own self-pity!"
"Yeah, I guess so," said all of the characters, except for Piginny, because she didn't need to answer her own question, and DK the rock, who instead said "Zeal is fit only for wise men but is found mostly in fools."
"Was that relevant?" asked Penguin Guy.
"Don't worry about it" said Zebra-Man.

Now that the team had finally achieved motivation to find a sense of direction, they decided to figure out which direction that was. James the Killer Whale, who had been swimming the deep blue sea while the last story was occuring, had an idea.
"I have an idea!" he said. "We are looking for an evil monkey king, right? Well, while I was swimming, I saw a bunch of monkeys standing on an island. Maybe, THAT was the island we are looking for!"
Even DK the Rock was silenced by this wisdom.
The team jumped on James' back, and began heading towards what I will refer to as "Monkey Island." When Monkey Island came into view, they decided to send some scouts out ahead to make sure it looked okay. Piginny, Mary the Goose, and Penguin Guy were chosen as the scouts, because they can fly. The following is an account of what they saw:
"I saw monkeys and a castle" said Mary the Goose.

"That is probably the right island" said Eads the Panda.
"Yep," said Penguin guy, "there were a bunch of monkeys patrolling the Castle Wall, but I think we could safely land on the island far away from the castle."
This was a good idea, so the team did it, because one of the keys to having a good crime fighting team is following good ideas. They landed far out of sight of the monkeys and set about finding a good idea to follow.
Smitty the Kitty (the Lemur) had the first idea. "Here's the Plan: Cali and DalmatiHonn start digging their way in under the wall; Piginny, Mary the Goose, and Penguin Guy fly over the battlements. Eads the Panda crushes the gate with his super strength, then Zebra-Man, Trevor the Lemur, and I can rush in. James the Killer Whale will be ready to help us escape if there are any problems, and one of us will have DK the Rock to throw if all else fails. It's perfect."
"No," said ZebraMan, "that is just what they would be expecting. We need to do something new and original, that hasn't ever been done before... We could build a wooden zebra!"
"Oh, so we could hide inside it and then they would open their gates and let us come in, and then we could jump out and attack them!" said Eads the Panda.
"I was just going to look at it," said Zebra-Man, "But your idea is good too."

Despite all of the pitfalls of having 11 characters, there is one plus side, and that is that a big building project such as a giant wooden zebra (which would usually take a long time) can be done very quickly. In fact, it is already done. One important thing happened during wood collection, though, and I would be remissed not to tell you... While DalmatiHonn and Trevor the Lemur were collecting wood, Trevor the Lemur said "You know, DalmatiHonn, its great being back with you and James the Killer Whale again, but I can't help but feel that we are forgetting something... or someone"
"Yeah, I have that feeling, too" said DalmatiHonn.
DalmatiHonn then picked up a stick from the ground, and saw what no one could possibly have seen coming.
"IT'S A SKUNK!" he yelled, and he ran back to the team's camp, with Trevor right behind him. They alerted the other team members, and they all hid up in a tall tree (except for James the killer whale- think about it). The skunk walked in through the camp.
"Wait a minute, there's something special about that skunk..." said Trevor the Lemur.
"Yeah, his stripes are a little wide for the skunks in this region," said Eads the Panda.
"And he's walking on two legs, tapdancing, juggling fire, and speaking to us in English" said Piginny.
"That too" said Eads.

"Hey!" said the Skunk, whose real name is actually Skunk Boy. "DalmatiHonn! Trevor the Lemur! It's me, the last missing member from your crime-fighting team- Skunk Boy!"
Then they remembered that they had had another character on their team originally, and there was much reminiscing and good times shared. Then they finished the wooden zebra, and our story can continue. (By the way, there are now 12 characters, if you were wondering.)

Intermission... (I am going to still write a bit more, but feel free to take a break, the story will be here when you get back, barring the entire Internet crashing in the few minutes it takes you to get a drink and some cookies... the stories are funnier if you eat a lot of cookies before reading them anyway)

Smitty the Kitty cleverly crafted the following plan: "Okay, Piginny will take DK the Rock up to the guard, pretending to be a regular, unintelligent pigeon so they don't sense anything suspicious. Then DK the Rock will hopefully say something meaningful, and they will except our gift of the zebra. When night falls we jump out and take down the menacing Monkey of all that is Malicious"
"Got it" said Zebra-Man
"Got it" said Penguin Guy
"Got it" said Eads the Panda
"Got it" said Piginny
"Got it" said Mary the Goose
"Got it" said DalmatiHonn
"Got it" said James the Killer Whale
"Got it" said Skunk Boy
"Got it" said Trevor the Lemur
Cali and DK the Rock didn't say anything.
"This is ridiculous" said Smitty the Kitty. "Oh well."

The plan started out exceptionally well. Piginny played her role as an unintelligent person (whoops- I meant pigeon, too late to change it now) perfectly, and Dk the Rock exceeded expectations by saying "Don't look a gift zebra in the mouth." This was especially fortunate, because all of the characters were hiding in the wooden zebra's mouth. The monkeys were not very intelligent, (which is why they weren't working for the Menacing Monkey of all that is Malicious and who is Really Smart, because they are not very smart, and because that doesn't exist.) and they accepting the gift, clapping their hands together like the stupid/evil monkeys that they were.

As night fell, the wooden zebra's mouth opened, and the characters all exited the mouth. Following the clearly marked signs that said "Are you looking for the Monkey King? Come this way!" they were able to find the door to his King Chambers.

"Be ready team," said Zebra-Man, "As far as we know, this Monkey is the last thing that stands between us and our goal of defeating evil form the world. It may be difficult, it may be daring, and it will most definately be hard core."

Slowly opening the door, the animals creeped inside, and found a fat old monkey asleep in his monkey bed. "What is this?" asked Piginny "this is lame, at best.

"Shh, it could be a trap" said Penguin Guy. At that moment Cali sensed movement, which is nothing new, but somehow prompted her to bark, which I will never understand. The monkey king awoke, blinked his stupid fat monkey eyes, and was promptly pounced on by DalmatiHonn. Zebra-Man approached the pinned Malicious Monkey King and said (hum triumphant music while you read this... it is more epic that way) "Now, Menacing Monkey King of all that is Malicious, your days of causing evil are over. we have found your lair and caught you, and we want you to renounce your evil ways, and withdraw your grip of evil from the world. A new day is dawning, a day of hope, and peace, and joy. Gone are the ways of Evil, maliciousness, menacing stuff, and all things that are generally not good. Do you renounce your evil?"

The Monkey King started laughing; a dry, wheezing laugh, full of menacing maliciousness, and also, it was monkey-esque. "You guys are full of yourselves aren't you? Banishing evil from the world? A new day of hope? Blah, blah, blah. Listen to me; All you have succeeded in doing is making fools of yourselves, and incurring a greater wrath than my own. You will pay for this... I have some very powerful allies that won't tolerate me being harassed like this..."

Then there was a bright flash, and DalmatiHonn found he no longer had the Monkey King pinned. The entire castle, all of the monkeys, and the wooden zebra had vanished. The team found themselves on a deserted island, wondering what to do next.

TO BE CONTINUED

Story Recap; in the exclusive dancing animal recap formatting style...
The team went to Hawaii to find DalmatiHonn's friend, James the Killer Whale
After getting some help from Keiko (Viva Keiko!), the stumbled upon DK the Rock (get it? because Zebra-Man stubbed his toe... stumbled? Get it?)
With the help of Smitty the Kitty (the Lemur) and Chuck Norris, the team defeated the Loser Lemur of all that is lame ("Nice alliteration").
Now, they added James the Killer Whale to their team (who is possibly more useless than DK the Rock... sorry James)


Book 2, Chapter 2

After the team had finished laughing at one of DK the Rock's crazy anecdotes, there was an awkard silence.
"Well," said Penguin guy, "what should we do next?"
"Umm, we should probably introduce a new character, or go somewhere to find the Malicious Monkey," said zebra-Man
"That's original" said Piginny scoffingly.
Smitty the Kitty rolled his eyes.
"Woe to us!" said Penguin Guy.
"Actually, I have an idea" said DalmatiHonn. "I didn't want to burden you guys with this earlier, but James and I have another friend that was captured"
"What's his name?" asked Zebra-Man
"I forgot" said DalmatiHonn (aka, the narrator has not yet decided.)
Piginny scoffed.
Smitty the Kitty rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, he was taken to a small island in the ocean, so we should go rescue him, too." said DalmatiHonn.
"Yes!" said James the Killer Whale, "now I can do something useful, because we are near water! I was really worried that I wouldn't ever do anything of any use at all!"
So the team boarded on to James the Killer Whale's back, and set off for the island in the ocean.
On the way, they turned to DK the Rock for some inspirational words of wisdom...
"The soldier who retreated 50 paces jeered at the one who retreated 100 paces," he said.
Piginny scoffed.
Smitty the Kitty rolled his eyes.
However, this is what everyone else needed to hear to be inspired. Zebra-Man placed DK the Rock back in his fannypack as they neared the island in the ocean.

The team had reached a seemingly deserted island, and exited off of James the Killer Whale's back. As they were exited, James thought he saw Zebra-man holding a piece of candy, so he pushed him to the ground to get it.
"Hey, what are you doing!" yelled Zebra-man.
"Sorry" said James the Killer Whale "I just like candy so much that I like to push people down so that I can get it first."
Then James the Killer Whale submerged himself back in the water, because killer whales are not at all useful on land, especially Killer whales that like to push people to get candy.

"Now what do we do?" asked Mary the Goose
"Let's see... we are on a deserted island, in the middle of the ocean, looking for a character that we don't really know about yet. Hmmmm...." pondered Eads the Panda.
"Wait a minute, what's that?" asked Penguin Guy.
It was a palm tree. (Penguin's are not familiar with palm trees, because there aren't any palm trees where penguins live)
Eads the Panda, who was knowledgeable about trees (because of all the characters, Eads was the most wise), told Penguin Guy
"It is a palm tree"
"Oh" said Penguin guy "I was not familiar with palm trees, because there aren't any palm trees where penguins live"
"True that" said DalmatiHonn.

Piginny and Mary the Goose flew to the top of the tree to investigate it, because it was the only thing on the island, and therefore the only thing worth investigating.
"It looks normal" said Mary the Goose
Then Smitty the Kitty used his lemur-like skills to climb the tree and investigate for himself.
"Wait a minute" he said "I think I found somethii----" But he didn't finish his sentence, because he had suddenly disappeared.
"Woe is us!" yelled Penguin Guy."We have lost Smitty the Kitty, the best lemur on our team. Who will roll their eyes now without him?"
Zebra-Man tried to roll his eyes, but one of them got stuck. Everyone laughed. Ohh.... : (
Then Piginny tried, and there was a huge explosion.
"Oh No' said eads the Panda, " you have combined your death glare powers with eye rolling powers, creating the most deadly eye-roll of all time!"
The explosion jarred Zebra-Mans stuck eye enough to return his vision to normal, and with his eye functioning again noticed that the explosion had caused the palm tree to disappear.
The team ran/skipped/flew/belly-slid over to the crater, and found a deep hole.
"That must have been where Smitty the Kitty fell through. it must have been a chimney-like opening to beneath the island" said Zebra-Man.
Then DalmatiHonn, using some sick digging skills, widened the hole enough for the characters to go inside.
"Okay, some of you need to guard the entrance until we come back' said Zebra-Man "How about, Mary the Goose, DK the Rock, and DalmatiHonn"
"Why us?" they asked.
"Because there are 7 of us, and that is way too many characters to give dialogue to. This way, there are only four of us going down" explained Zebra-man.
"Okay' said Mary the Goose
"Okay" said DalmatiHonn
"If you have money you can make the ghosts and devils turn your grind stone." said DK the Rock
Piginny was about to roll her eyes, but Eads stopped her, lest it create another explosion.
The lack of Smitty the Kitty's eye roll mad everyone sad, and they decided to hurry up to save him, so Zebra Man, Eads the Panda, Penguin Guy, and Piginny jumped into the hole.

They landed on a hard cement floor, but luckily Eads the Panda had hit first, and his panda-belly and broken the fall of everyone else. Then, the platform began to move, and bars began to rise up around them.
"Oh dear!' said Penguin-Guy
"Quick, Piginny, fly back up the chimney and tell the others to help us" said Zebra-man.
Piginny flew off, escaping just beore the bars closed. The now-caged animals were moving away into the darkness. After a while, they were in a large cavern, and they spotted Smitty the Kitty in his own cage a little ways off.
As they looked around into the darkness, they saw lots of moving shapes.
"What is that?" asked Eads the panda.
Their eyes continued to adjust, and then they recognized the shapes- they were little kittens all chained up in a big row.
Then they heard a snarling noise and turned around to see something so sinister and so frightening, that words cannot describe it... but then, the narrator could not make the picture of it work, so it turns out that words can describe it.
It was a puppy- but not just any puppy... an evil Golden Retriever puppy named Cali!!! Bumm bum bum!
"I am Cali, the Evil King of Dogs. You have found my secret lair, where I enslave kittens to do my evil bidding. Ha!"
Penguin Guy collapsed into a heap of fear. Zebra-Man tried to reason with it, but it was no use. Cali bit Zebra-man's hand and growled.
Just when all seemed hopeless, they heard an explosion behind them. Piginny had rolled her eyes, and had shown up with Mary the Goose, DalmatiHonn, and DK the rock.
"DalmatiHonn, you must reason with it" Eads yelled, "because you are both dogs"
DalmatiHonn, in a series of growls, whines, and various tail-wagging techniques somehow managed to calm Cali down (because she was good at heart). Then Cali apologized for her actions and set the kittens free. She also offered to join the team, because her biting and barking skills could come in handy.
"On one condition," said Zebra-man, "you must never say anything, because we have a lot of characters already"
Cali agreed to this.
One of the kittens came up to the team and said, "My name is Trevor the Lemur. I know it doesn't make sense because I am a kitten, but they thought it would be funny to name me that. I don't really see why. Cal captured me here long ago, by eating my flip-flop, then promising me a new flip-flop if I follwed her here, but instead she captured me."
The team had pity on Trevor the Lemur for his unfortunate name and situation, and decided that he could join the team- and he could talk, for some reason, even though Cali couldn't.

Now that DalmatiHonn's entire team had been rescued, they were able to set off in pursuit of the Monkey King, to free the land of his evil ways.
they stepped out into the sunlight of the island, and called upon James the Killer Whale to take them to their next destination.

To be continued...

Here is some fun information...

The super hero "Zebra-Man" has already been invented,before I started writing the stories. This would disappoint me because it would seem I was copying them and was not very original, but upon researching the zebra-man character I found out that my version is way better. If you go to http://www.beyondhollywood.com/reviews/zebraman.htm you can see a review of the movie. It was basically a crazy Japanese movie made in 2004, and it is kind of a spoof on superhero stories. This guy dresses up as a zebra because his real life isn't going well, but by doing so he fulfills some prophecy about a zebraman and he gets real powers and then has to fight off little green aliens. I'm kind of intrigued, so if any of you have this Japanese movie lying around somewhere in your house, please let me know.

I found this out because I searched zebra-man on google to see if I was there, and there was a bunch of stuff about this movie. If you search "zebraman schrieber", I have the first six links, which makes me feel really special.

So, I guess I told you all this just so that you weren't shocked and angry from hearing it from someone else- because I would rather you hear it from me. I hope you all know that I would never intentionally copy a pre-existing superhero, or steal any of their lame ideas. Your continued faith in zebraman will hopefully one day cause this zebraman to exceed the other zebraman in respect and recognition.

Introduction:
This story marks the beginning of the new Zebra-Man book. Filled with drama, adventure, and way too many new characters, hopefully this book can continue to change lives around the globe, by destorying assumptions about what talking animals can and can't do, and continuing to give zebras hope that they do have a purpose (although I haven't yet discovered what that is). If you know any zebras that struggle with self-esteem, please share these stories with them, and introduce me to them, because I have never met a zebra, let alone a zebra capable of having self-esteem issues. Likewise, any penguins that dream of one day flying, or pandas that struggle with weight issues, may benefit from these stories. Evil pigeons seeking to abandon their past life of evil, or Canadian geese that struggle with the validity of their homeland can finally find characters they can relate to. Enjoy!

Recap:
Using the never before seen "random-symbol goose method" format, lets recap the story:
! With the help of the head-butting Siberian tiger (not to be confused with the head-butting French soccer player) the good guys defeating the Evil scorpion king of all that is evil.
@ Penguin Guy found a cape to help him fly, which is cool because now he can fly, whereas prior to finding the cape he couldn't, because penguins can't usually fly.
# The team added a new member, DalmatiHonn, after rescuing him and thousands of other puppies from the scorpion king.
$ DalmatiHonn told the team that his friend James the Killer Whale was being held captive by the menacing monkey of all that is malicious.

Book 2, Chapter 1:
After being carried away from the evil Scorpion King's castle, the team decided to have a team meeting to decide what to do next.
"Where is James the Killer Whale?" Zebra-man asked DalmatiHonn.
"I don't know, but probably Hawaii."
"Why Hawaii?" asked Piginny.
"Look, we can argue about where he is or we can assume that he is at the first place we guess he is, because this story has to make progress at some point, and there is no logical way to figure out where he is, so we might as well go to Hawaii"
None of the characters could argue with DalmatiHonn's argument, so they decided to go to Hawaii.
"To the penguin-mobile!" yelled Mary the Goose, "because I am not carrying you guys all the way to Hawaii."
"No way!" said Eads, "Do you have any idea how expensive the gas would be!?!
"Okay," said Zebra-Man, "We can't fly there, and we can't take the penguin-mobile, so there is only one thing left to do. We have to sit here and wait for something magical to happen."
So they sat and waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally, dalmatiHonn said "Wait a minute! Haven't you guys ever heard the legend of Keiko the Whale"
"No. And isn't Keiko dead?" said Penguin Guy
"No, Keiko lives!" yelled Zebra-Man, "Viva Keiko! Yay!!!"
"Are you done?" Piginny asked Zebra-Man.
"Yes" said Zebra-Man.
"Anyway," DalmatiHonn continued "There is an ancient legend among dalmation's like myself, that if you are in trouble you can call upon Keiko the whale and he will help you out. All you have to do is say 'Keiko, come help us'".
So they all said, "Keiko, come help us," and a mystical killer whale appeared in the ocean and swam up to them. It then emitted a frightening screeching noise, because although Keiko is a mystical non-dying animal, he still can't talk, and sounds like a whale. But, regardless of his inability to talk, he instinctively knew that the team wanted to go to Hawaii, because whales can sense things like that.

Upon arriving in Hawaii, and waving goodbye to Keiko, Zebra-man was walking up the beach when he stubbed his toe on a rock, and promptly said, Ow!
"Ow!" said Zebra-Man.
Then, to his surprise, he looked down and saw a rock looking back up at him. (I understand that rocks don't have faces and can't really look, but if you are able to accept that there are talking animals you can accept that there are rocks with faces).
He said, "My name is DK the rock, and apart from telling you my name and explaining this to you, I can only speak in ancient proverbs."
"Well, you're pretty useless then, aren't you" said Piginny as she scoffed at the rock.
DK the rock looked at her and said "Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow."
"Oh, I was wrong, you are very useful" said Piginny.
Zebra-man decided that the rock may eventually prove useful, or he wouldn't have entered the story, so he picked him up and put him in his fannypack. (yes, zebra's wear fannypacks... and they are really cool because of it).
DK said, "Going to law is losing a cow for the sake of a cat."
"You're welcome" said Zebra-Man.

So now with the addition of a new character, the team was ready to move on in the story. In Piginny's past experiences as a spy in Hawaii she had discovered some questionable locations where evil monkeys may build hide outs and hide killer whales. One of these spots was a dark and sinister building along the coast, which seems an obvious choice for a place to hide a killer whale if you are an evil monkey.
"Okay, here's the plan... Penguin Guy, Mary the Goose, and Piginny will try to fly into the castle from above. Meanwhile, Eads, DalmatiHonn, and I will go up to the front gate and hope it's unlocked," explanied Zebra-Man.
(Again I will employ the split story technique to explain everything that happens)
Our flying friends carefully flew over the front wall as soon as it was dark. As soon as they cleared the wall they were face to face with 300 lemurs.
"Oh No!" Penguin Guy yelled, "they must have known we were coming! I hope that Zebra-Man, Eads, and DalmatiHonn don't get caught, or we are in big trouble!"
So Penguin guy, Piginny, and Mary the goose were all carried away to big cages.
Meanwhile, the other group was having much better luck. Upon opening the front door (which was unlocked) they were on their way to the king's room. Once there, they saw all of their friends in cages and a giant lemur sitting in a throne.
"Wait a minute... this story if about the menacing monkey of all that is malicious, not the loser lemur of all that is lame" said Zebra-man
"Nice work with the spontaneous alliteration" said Eads.
"HAHAHA" laughed the lemur. "I work for the malicious monkey. I guard his prisoners here. And i cleverly captured half of your group!"
"yeah, but the other half walked straight in" pointed out dalmatiHonn.
"That is only because i didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to walk in through the front door. that backfired" said the Lemur King. "Enough chatting, let us duel!"
So, yet another epic battle began.
Zebra-man, eads, and DalmatiHonn were doing alright, but they couldn't handle all of the lemurs that surrounded them. Then the caged flying animals noticed a lemur standing near them, but he was mumbling so they couldn't understand him.
"Speak Up" said piginny.
"Oh, sorry" said the lemur. "i was just explaining that i wanted to help you guys out of here."
"No," said Piginny, "I wanted to be the only character that was once bad and then became good. You are stealing my thunder!"
"Fine, I won't help"
"No, wait" interjected Penguin Guy, "you should help us anyway. I'm Penguin Guy, what's your name?"
"I'm Smitty the kitty. I know it doesn't make sense because I'm a lemur, but they named me wrong as a joke, and because it rhymes. I'm really bitter about it, which is why I want to help you"
He then released them and they all joined the fight. Zebra-man suddenly had an idea. he unzipped his fannypack and threw DK the rock at the Lemur King. it hit him in the head and fell into his hand. the lemur King looked down and DK said "Your answers lie within, The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones." The Lemur king was so confused that he ordered the fighting to stop while he pondered DK's words. As he was pondering, he received a sharp kick from Zebra-Man, a panda-power punch from Eads, a sharp beak peck from Piginny and Mary the Goose, a bite from DalmatiHonn, a wing smack from Penguin guy, a lemur-karate chop from Smitty the Kitty, and a roundhouse kick to the face from Chuck Norris... all at the same time. He then exploded into a thousand pieces, because no lemur can bear that much pain.
The new and improved crime-fighting team, with Smitty the kitty (the lemur) then went to rescue James the Killer whale.
"Thank you for saving me. Now I can help out your team, as long as you are near water. Yay!!!"
Dk looked at him and said "A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion."
Then the entire team threw their heads back and laughed. "Ha ha ha" giggled Zebra-man.
but had the team known what dark and dangerous road lay ahead for them, their laughter would have been short lived. But instead, they laughed a really long time.
To be continued....

This is going to be the place to post quotes from the crime-fighting stories or quotes you have made up. Please post the quote and the character who said it or would say it. If they make me giggle like a small child I will post them below, or use them in fan-club newsletters. Hooray for giggling small children!

ZebraMan:
"It's better to kill two birds with one stone than to kill a zebra"
"Paychecks come and go, but zebras are forever"
"Two zebras have more stripes than one, but one zebra has less stripes"
"Isn't Canada just a myth used to scare children from moving Northward?"
"Ha ha ha" giggled Zebra-man.

PenguinGuy:
"How is this even relevant to the story!?"
"Oh man, if only I could fly! Woe is me!"
"That was anticlimatic and and quite adumbrate"
"And isn't Keiko dead?"


Eads the Panda:
"I love bamboo! I feel like punching a hole in something now!"
"Why would parents want to stop their children from moving northward?"
"Let's hit the panda in the face again with a bird! Real original!"
"Nice work with the spontaneous alliteration"

Piginny:
"Yeah"
"Well, you're pretty useless then, aren't you"
"You are stealing my thunder!"
"Are you done?"

Mary the Goose:
"Let it out!"
"To the penguin-mobile!"

DalmatiHonn:
"I was talking to my friend James the Killer Whale, but he was captured by the Menacing Monkey of all that is Malicious."
"Wait a minute! Haven't you guys ever heard the legend of Keiko the Whale"
"Look, we can argue about where he is or we can assume that he is at the first place we guess he is, because this story has to make progress at some point, and there is no logical way to figure out where he is, so we might as well go to Hawaii"

DK the Rock:
"Going to law is losing a cow for the sake of a cat."
"Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow."
"A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion."


Smitty the Kitty:
"I'm Smitty the kitty. I know it doesn't make sense because I'm a lemur, but they named me wrong as a joke, and because it rhymes. I'm really bitter about it, which is why I want to help you"

James the Killer Whale:
"Thank you for saving me. Now I can help out your team, as long as you are near water. Yay!!!" ( I know that's not really a cool quote- but it's all he's said so far)