Rayman Legends Adventures in Madagascar/Transcript

The sun was slowly starting to rise into the heavens over a beautiful jungle.  A new day was beginning, and for one jungle inhabitant, it was another day in paradise.  Swinging on a vine, bellowing like Tarzan, was a zebra, having the time of his life.  He let go and started falling to the ground.  A chorus of penguins sang a beautiful song while getting out of the zebra’s way.  He jumped over a deep chasm and did several moves in the air, from a few spins and somersaults before landing on the other side.  The happy-go-lucky zebra ran down the hills towards a lake off in the distance.  However, he was unaware that he was being watched.  Peeking from behind a rock was a lion, smirking at the zebra with a big grin while planning an action.  He chased after the zebra silently on his hind legs, eagerly waiting for the perfect moment to strike.  The zebra, oblivious to his follower, focused on the beautiful lake ahead of him.  But just as he was about to make it...
“SURPRISE,” the lion shouts as he suddenly appears in front of the zebra with his paws held high.
The lion’s sudden appearance alarmed the zebra and this caused him to lose his footing and smash into a zoo fence behind him.  The zebra, seeing that his vision of being in a tropical paradise was now over, and seeing that he was back in reality of living the Central Park zoo in New York City, looked at the lion that stood between him and his mural of African wildlife.  “Alex,” he said as he approached the lion, “do not interrupt me if I’m daydreaming.  Since the zebra’s in the zone, leave him alone.”
“Ah, c'mon, Marty,” said Alex, “I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday.”
Marty, seeing that his friend was wishing him a happy birthday, forgot his frustration and grinned.  “H-hey, man,” he said, “thanks.”
“Oh...ah...errr,” moaned Alex as he clenched his cheek, “hey, um...I have, I've had something stuck in my teeth.  It’s driving me crazy.  Can you help me out here?  Please?”
“Ah, you came to the right place, my friend.  Dr. Marty DDS, in the house,” said Marty, “please jump on top of my sterilized examination table, if you may.”
Alex jumped onto one of the exhibit poles and opened his mouth.  Marty took a look inside, only to see nothing.  “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s on the left,” said Alex as Marty looked around.
Alex’s attempt in speaking with his mouth open caused Marty to lose focus.  “Oh, I'm sorry,” said Alex.
“Alright, just don’t speak with your mouth complete,” said Marty before looking into the mouth again.
Eventually, Marty spotted something and pulled it out of his friend’s mouth.  “Ah-ha...right here,” said Marty, before seeing that it was a snow globe, “what the heck is this doing in there?”
“Happy birthday,” said Alex happily.
Obliged, Marty said, “oh, he-hey, thanks, man.  You put it in behind your tooth.  You alright?”
“These aren’t even on the shelf yet,” said Alex as he shook the globe, “here, check it out, check it out.  Look at that.  Ooh, look at that.”
Marty looked and saw the snow falling around a mini statue of Alex, posing like he was in a show.  “Look at that,” said Marty, “it’s snowing.”
Alex posed like the mini version of himself in front of Marty.  “Ten years old, right?  A decade, double digits, the big 1-0.”
Marty grinned at Alex before turning to the snow globe.  But despite having received a generous gift for his birthday, Marty couldn’t help but feel a sense of slight despair.  Alex saw this and felt worried.  “You don’t like it,” he asked.
“Oh, dear, it’s grand,” said Marty.
“Ya hate it,” moaned Alex, “should’ve found you the Alex alarm clock.  That’s the one.  That’s the big seller.”
“No, no, no, the present’s grand, really,” said Marty as he put the snow globe with the rest of his Alex souvenirs, “it’s just that, another year’s come and gone, and I’m yet doing the same old fact.  ‘Stand over here, trot over there, eat some grass, walk back over here.’”
“I see your problem,” said Alex.
“Perhaps I should go to law school,” suggested Marty.
“You just need to break out of that boring routine,” said Alex.
“How?”
“Throw out the old act, who knows what you’ll do so.  Make it up as you go along.  Ad-lib, improvise, on the fly, boom, boom, boom,” said Alex, trying to encourage his friend.
“Really?”
“You know, make it fresh,” said Alex.
“Fresh, right,” asked Marty, who started liking the idea, “alright, I can do fresh.”
“Works for me.”
Suddenly, the center bell at the zoo entrance went off.  Alex and Marty heard this and saw that this was indicating one fact; the zoo was opening.  Upon hearing the bell, Alex became emotional.  “Here come the people, Marty.  Ooh, I love the people,” said Alex, “it’s fun people, fun time.  Woo!”
Alex, in his joy, jumped into the exhibit right next door to Marty’s, where their friend, Gloria the Hippopotamus was sleeping.  “Let’s go, Gloria!  Up and at them, we’re open,” said Alex happily.
Gloria let out a huge yawn before asking, “what day is it?”
“It’s Friday,” said Alex as he danced, “Field Trip Day.”
Gloria started feeling emotional as well.  “Yes, it’s Field Trip Day, let’s get up and go,” she said before getting tired again, “ten more moments.”
Alex swung from the center lamp post and landed on the house of Gloria’s next door neighbor.  “C'mon, Melman, Melman, Melman!  Melman, Melman, Melman,” Alex announced, “wake up!  Rise and shine!  It’s another famous morning in the Big Apple.  Let’s go!”
Melman the Giraffe, wearing a neck cone on his head, came out and looked at Alex.  “Not for me,” he said, “I’m calling in sick.”
“What?”
“I found another brown spot on my shoulder,” said Melman as he showed Alex one of his spots, “right here, you see?  Right here, right here.  You see?” 
“Melman, you know it’s all in your head,” said Alex, "yes. C'mon, guys!"
The zoo gates opened and children came running in, with their parents close behind.  Within moments, the zoo became crowded with people wanting to see the zoo animals.  Nearby, a chimpanzee named Mason, yawned as he took some stuff out of a nearby trashcan.  He pulled out a newspaper, a doughnut and a drink.  “Phil,” he said as he approached his fellow chimp, who was lazily lying on a branch, “wake up, you filthy monkey!”
Back at Marty’s exhibit, Marty was ready for since the people would meet him.  “Oh, I’m gonna be fresh,” he said as he stretched his legs and back, “straight out the ground, tasty fresh, freshalicious.”
Marty took one of his Alex-themed drinks and drank before spitting it out.  “Ziploc fresh.”
A crowd of people gathered around Alex’s pen.  Some of the children were very emotional to see Alex appear.  “Ladies and gentlemen,” said an announcer on a megaphone, “children of all ages......”
Underneath his stage rock, Alex enthusiastically stuffed himself for a performance.  “The Central Park zoo proudly presents...the King of New York City,” the announcer continued.
“Alex...the lion,” said Alex silently in his joy before imitating the cheering crowd.
“It’s show time,” said Marty as he prepared his own show for the zoo visitors.
Standing tall on his main stage rock, Alex posed in front of the cheering crowd.  After a moment of standing, Alex did a pose with his paws extended outward.  “RWAAARRRR!!!!”
Some fireworks erupted on both sides of Alex’s stage.  The crowd cheered jubilantly for their beloved zoo star.  Alex did some poses for the peoples’ cameras.  He did all sorts of poses and expressions while Marty, taking Alex’s advice to try something new, ran around his exhibit, greeting the visitors.  “Gather around, people, big show about to start,” he said as he ran around his pen, “check out the zebra taking care of biz, that’s right.”
Some of the children marveled at the zebra’s moves.  Marty took a sip of water from his water bin and whooshed it around his mouth.  He spat a bit out, but ran after it and caught it.  He did it more faster around his exhibit, and after a few tries, he sprayed it out of his mouth, inadvertently getting some of the visitors wet.  But the children loved the performance and cheered.  As for Alex, he kept getting praise from the loud crowd of people.  It was another wonderful day of joy and performances.  Even Gloria was also doing something for the crowds.  The people viewing her from an underwater room saw her spin in circles as she headed to the surface.  She came out with a big splash and grinned at a camera.  As for Melman, he was frantically wanting to get a scan for his so-called illness thanks to his brown spot.  Three of them were standing on their exhibit island near their fish bowl, waving to the crowd and grinning.  But there was more to these penguins then just grinning and waving.  They were biding their time for a plan of their own.  The leader of the group, Skipper, gave out instructions as his two comrades, Rico and Private, waved to the crowd.  “Just grin and wave, boys.  Grin and wave,” said Skipper before turning to the fish bowl, “Kowalski.  Progress report.”
The bowl moved out of the road, revealing a tunnel system underneath it, and Kowalski, another one of the penguins.  “We’re only five hundred feet from the main sewer line,” he reported.
“And the bad news,” asked Skipper.
“We’ve broken our last shovel,” said Kowalski as he showed Skipper a broken plastic spoon.
“Right,” replied Skipper before turning to Rico, “Rico, you’re on Litter Patrol.  We need shovels and find more Popsicle sticks.  Don’t wanna risk another cave-in.”
Rico saluted his boss before diving into the water.  “And me, Skipper,” asked Private.
“I want you to look cute and cuddly, Private,” said Skipper before acting cute with Private in front of the people, “today, we’re gonna blow this dump.”
As the two penguins acted, Rico swam a distance from the island, towards the crowd of people.  Swift as a flash, he jumped out and snatched a plastic spoon from a boy’s hand before landing in the water again.
Meanwhile, at Marty’s pen, he was doing an armpit trick in front of another crowd of people.  The children laughed as they watched the zebra.  “Yes,” said Marty, “you don’t see that on Animal Planet.”
The children tried imitating the zebra, though the parents, not very impressed, guided their children away, disappointing them.  “Well, show’s over, folks,” said Marty, “thanks for coming.  I hope you thought it was fresh.  I’ll be here all week.  In fact, I’ll be here for my entire life; three hundred sixty five days again, including Christmas, Hanukah, Halloween, Kwanzaa; please don’t forget to never spay or neuter your pets and tip your cabbie because he’s broke.”
While Marty was saying this, he was leaning on the exhibit gate near Alex’s exhibit, taking another drink from the Alex bottle.  But before he could respond, a spoon burst out from the grass and tried digging up out of the surface.  Everyone noticed it and was confused.  Suddenly, the spoon disappeared and out came the four penguins.  Marty was confused as to why the penguins were digging into his exhibit while the zebra stood surprised.  After examining his surroundings, Skipper noticed Marty and said, “you, quadruped.  You speak English?”
“I speak,” replied a confused Marty.
“What continent is this?”
“Manhattan,” replied Marty.
Seeing that they weren’t closer to their intended destination then they thought, Skipper turned to his fellow penguins.  “Hoover Dam!  We’re yet in New York,” he complained, “abort!  Dive, dive, dive!”
The penguins dove back into the hole, but Marty, now curious, rushed after them.  “HEY, HEY, YOU IN THE TUX!!  WAIT A MOMENT,” he called.
The penguins burst out again and looked at Marty.  “What are you guys doing here,” Marty asked.
“We’re digging to Antarctica,” replied Private, only to get a slap to the face by Skipper.
“An-who-tica,” asked Marty.
“Can you keep a secret,” asked Skipper, before turning to Marty, “along with you, my monochromatic friend?”
Marty looked around him, and seeing that no one was eavesdropping on them, nodded yes.  “Do you ever see any penguins running free around New York City,” asked Skipper.
Marty nodded no.  “Of course not,” replied Skipper, “we don’t belong here.  It’s just not natural.  This is all some kind of whacked out conspiracy.  We’re going to the wide open spaces of Antarctica...to the wild.”
“The wild,” asked Marty, who was listening to Skipper and was curious, “you can actually go there?  That sounds grand.”
Marty, liking this idea, turned to the penguins again, but saw that they were gone.  “Hey, hold up.  Where is this place?  Warn me where it is,” begged Marty as he looked into the hole.
Skipper appeared again and stared at the zebra.  He raised his flippers and waved them around in circles.  “You didn’t see anything,” he said as he slowly descended into the hole, before quickly bursting out again and asking, “right?”
“Yes...sir,” replied Marty as he saluted, “uh...I’m sorry...no, sir!”
Marty heard the announcer announcing the finale of Alex’s show.  “For his final appearance of the day,” he announced as Marty and the gang took a look, “the king of New York City.  ALEX...THE LION!!”
“RWAAAAAARRR,” roared Alex as he did his concluding pose in front of the cheering crowd.
The zoo bells rang again, signifying that the zoo was now closing.  Back with Alex, he was yet waving to his fans and thanking them for their support.  “Thank you,” he said as he caught flowers and gifts thrown to him, “Thank you very much!  You guys are grand!  You’re a big crowd!  Give yourselves a hand!  Eh!  Thank you!”
A pair of underpants landed on Alex’s muzzle.  “Uh, woah...thank you,” he said with doubt as he looked at it, “oh, that’s too kind, too kind.”
As the zoo staff guided the zoo visitors to the exit, Alex flung the underwear off, unintentionally landing it on Melman’s snout.  “AH!!  UNDERPANTS,” he exclaimed.
“Everybody get home safe,” said Alex to the fans, “hey, check out my website.  Twenty-four hour Alex cam.  Watch me sleep.”
Back in the zoo, it was feeding time for all of the animals.  Each chef was pushing a trolley with food for each animal.  For Marty, while he was getting his front hooves cleaned, he got a special grass specialty.  As for Gloria, she was getting a relaxing back massage while her fruit salad was being delivered.  “This is the life,” she said.
As for Melman, he was getting acupuncture from a doctor.  “That hits the spot,” he said before getting his medicine, “ah...I’m in heaven.”
As for Alex, he was getting his mane cleaned by four workers.  Alex relaxed while getting this service.  His trolley came and the chef revealed Alex’s dinner; steaks.  Seeing this, Alex gestured for his servants to halt before licking his lips and feasting on the meat.
After a long and exciting day of performances and seeing the people, the Central Park zoo animals started sleeping.  But Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman were still awake.  With the day passed, they gathered to celebrate Marty’s birthday.  “Ooh, it’s Marty’s birthday,” said a happy Gloria.
“Just rip it open,” Alex said to Marty, who was holding one of his gifts.
“What is it, what is it,” asked Marty as he shook one of his presents, trying to guess what’s in it.
“Come on, open it up,” said Gloria.
Marty did so, and he saw a thermometer.  “Yeah,” exclaimed Marty. 
“What you got,” asked Gloria.
“A thermometer.  Thanks!  I love it Melman, I love it,” said Marty.
Marty put the tip of it in his mouth while Melman said, “yeah, I wanted to give you something personal.  You know, that was my first rectal thermometer.”
Suddenly freaking out, Marty turned and spat out the thermometer.  With his distracted, Alex, Gloria and Melman gathered together for a presentation.  Melman blew a party blower, catching Marty’s attention.  He turned and saw his friends preparing for a song.
Alex, Gloria and Melman: MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM…
Alex: Happy...
Gloria: Birth…
Melman: Day…
Alex: To…
Gloria: You!
Alex: You…
Melman: Live…
Gloria: In…
Alex: A zoo!
Gloria: You…
Alex: Look like a monkey…
Melman: AAAAAAAAANNNDDD…
Alex: You smell…
Gloria: Like…
All three: One too.
The three friends laughed while Mason, having overheard their song, spat out his coffee in shock.  “I say,” he said, completely shocked.
Nearby, the gang appeared from behind a building, having listened to the song.  “Now that was an interesting birthday song,” said Ari.
Their presence caused everyone to gasp in shock, except for Marty.  “Heyhey, there you guys are,” he said, “I was hoping you’d show up soon.”
“Sorry about the delay,” said Riley, “we had to make sure no one was watching us sneak in here and wish you a happy birthday.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute, time out here,” said a confused Alex, “just who are you guys.  You do know that the zoo is closed, do you?”
“Sorry if we startled you,” said Riley, “we’re the gang and we were at the zoo today.  We met Marty and he asked us to come by after dark to wish him a happy birthday.”
“We saw your performance earlier today,” said Kristie, “that was awesome.”
“Really?  Oh thank you,” said Alex, enjoying the comment, “I’ve always had a knack for appealing to a large crowd of people, including a group like you who’s different.  No offense.”
“None taken,” said Riley, “we’re not from around here anyway, so that was a natural comment.”
“Glad you all enjoyed my show.  By the way, I’m Alex, and this is Gloria and Melman.”
“Pleased to meet you all,” said Gloria, starting to warm up to them.
“Yeah…I guess,” said Melman, who was nervous.
“You guys did do a pretty good song too,” said Blicky, “it’s nice knowin’ Marty’s got great pals showing off their joy.”
“Thanks,” said Alex, “it’s a song we worked on specifically for him.”
“Ah well now, you guys are just embarrassing me,” said Marty, “and yourselves.” 
“What’re you talking about,” asked Alex as he took one of his steaks, “we worked on that all weak.”
“Let’s go, let’s make a wish Baby Cakes,” said Gloria who had a birthday cake for Marty, with a candle ready to be blown out.
Marty looked at the cake and thought.  He glimpsed over at the gang and came up with a wish idea.  He blew out the candle quietly before taking a bite.  “Come on, what’d you wish for,” asked Alex.
“Nope,” said Marty, “can’t tell ya that.” 
“Come on tell.”
“No siree, I’m tellin’ ya, it’s bad luck.  Want some bad luck, I’ll blab it out, but if you wanna be safe…”
“Oh for crying out loud Marty, would you just tell us,” asked Gloria, “I mean really, what could happen.”
“It is your choice if you wanna say anything,” said Riley, “but I’m sure these guys won’t mind.”
“After a crazy song they sang, but one that had heart put into it, that’s saying something,” said Jicky.
Marty thought about it before saying.  “Ok.  I wished…I could go…TO THE WILD!”
This caused Alex, Melman and Gloria to turn frantic.  “THE WILD,” asked Alex before losing his balance on the exhibit fence and fall into his own pen.
As for Melman, he accidentally swallowed the party blower in his fright while Gloria stood, jaw-dropped.  “Or perhaps they do mind,” said Dicky.
“I told ya it was bad luck,” said Marty.
Gloria tried getting Melman’s party blower out of his mouth by banging on the back of his head, while Alex pulled himself together. “The wild,” he asked as he got on Marty’s exhibit gate again, “are you nuts?  That is the worst idea I’ve ever heard.” 
The party blower came out of Melman’s mouth and it landed in Marty’s exhibit.  After coughing and catching his breath, Melman said, “it’s unsanitary.”
“You know, you don’t have to criticize Marty for a wish,” said Yusi, “everyone has their own desires and hopes.”
“But his idea’s crazy,” said Alex.
“The penguins are going…so why can’t I,” asked Marty.
“The penguins are psychotic,” said Alex as he took his steak.
“Come on,” said Marty, “just imagine going back to nature, back to your roots.  Clean air, wide open spaces.”
“Well I heard there’s wide open spaces in Connecticut,” said Picky.
“Connecticut,” asked Marty.
“Yeah, what you gotta do is you gotta go over to Grand Central, and then you gotta…take the Metro North train,” said Melman, “…north?”
“So one could take the train…just hypothetically.”
“Well…that’s one way to get to Connecticut,” said Faja, “is it?”
“If we had a train schedule with us, then we could see,” said Ostron, “but I’m sure that’s one way to get there.”
“Guys, come on,” said Alex, “what would Connecticut have to offer us?”
“Lime-disease,” said Melman.
“Thank you Melman.”
“No, no, really, I, I…”
“There’s certainly none of this in the wild,” said Alex as he showed Marty his steak, ignoring his protests, “this is a highly refined, type of…food…thing that you do not find in the wild.”
“Do you thought there might be more to life than a steak Alex,” asked Marty.
“He didn’t mean that baby,” said Alex to his steak, “no.”
“Doesn’t it bother you guys that you don’t know anything about life outside the zoo,” asked Marty.
The three stared at Marty.  After a moment of silence, they all answered.  “Nuh-uh,” said Melman.
“Mmm-mmm,” added Gloria.
“Nope,” said Alex, “well, I mean come on.  That’s just one subject.  You got a little uh…a little schmutz right there on your…”
Marty sighed, disappointed that his friends weren’t supporting his idea.  As he wiped the piece of cake off his mouth, some of the gang members expressed their thoughts.  “You know, there is more to a life in a zoo than meets the eye,” said Julia.
“Julia’s right,” added Gina, “all Marty’s wishing for is more to do in life.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” added Ostron, “it’s like he wants adventure.”
“Sorry guys, but that can’t work here,” said Alex, “even if he did go to the wild, what would he be able to do?  How would he survive when he’s got the zoo?”
The gang looked at Alex, unsure of how to reply to his question.  “You know, for a trio of friends, you sure know how to be discouraging,” said Chicky, only to get elbowed.
“Chicky,” scolded Claite.
Marty looked at the gang before turning back to his zoo friends.  “Thanks guys.  Thanks for the party,” he said, trying to be happy, “it was great…really.”
Alex, who was munching on his steak, looked at Marty.  He was happy knowing that he made Marty’s day special, but seeing Marty acting down made him feel bad too.  They watched Marty walk to his treadmill.  “What’s eating him,” asked Melman.
“Maybe you should talk to him Alex,” whispered Gloria, “you know, go over there and give him a little pep talk.” 
“Hey, I already gave him a snow globe.  I can’t top that,” said Alex.
Gloria sighed.  “Alex.”
“I can see where this is going,” said Melman before yawning, “it is getting late.  I guess I’m gonna…”
Melman suddenly fell asleep in place, leaving Gloria and Alex to think of an idea to cheer Marty up.  “Um guys, could you give us a moment,” asked Gloria, “it’s been nice meeting you, but I think it’s time you go and let Alex have a word with Marty.”
“What,” asked Alex.
“I guess…you make a good point,” said Riley, feeling bad for Marty, but knowing that they should go, “thank you for letting us celebrate his birthday.  It’s been nice meeting you guys too.  Alright gang, let’s go.”
Together the gang started leaving while Gloria made gestures for Alex to have a talk with Marty.  They did a silent argument, before Alex got intimidated with Gloria gesturing a physical confrontation for if Alex didn’t do anything.  “Come on, he’s your best friend,” whispered Gloria.
No longer against the idea, Alex gave in.  “Alright, alright,” he said, “ok.”
Satisfied, Gloria started walking towards her pool.  “Good night Marty,” he said.
“Good night Glo,” replied Marty quietly.
Gloria gestured for Alex to talk with Marty again before doing a back flip into her pool.  She landed with a big splash.  Alex covered his head with an umbrella, managing to stay dry.  Gloria’s hand poked out of the water again and again gestured for Alex to say something to Marty.  With that, Gloria’s hand disappeared underwater and she turned off her light.  Now Alex and Marty were the only ones awake.  Alex looked at Marty, trying to think of a way to cheer him up without making things worse for him.  Alex started resting on the fence while looking up at the night sky.  “Ah…what a day.  I mean really, I tell you, it just doesn’t get any better than this, you know,” said Alex before spotting a star in the sky, “oh, it just did; even the star’s out.  Not gonna find a star like that in the wild.”
“Helicopter,” corrected Marty.
The bright light turned out to be a helicopter.  As it flew off, Alex turned to Marty.  “Marty, buddy,” he said, “listen.  Everybody has days where they think the grass might be greener somewhere else.”
“Alex,” said Marty as he got off his treadmill, “look at me.  I’m ten years old and my life is half over, and I don’t even know if I’m black with white stripes or…white with black stripes.”
Marty sat near the exhibit fence and sighed.  Alex looked at his friend, feeling sorry for him.  Coming up with a new idea, Alex smiled and said, “Marty…I’m thinking of a song.”
“Alex please, not now,” said Marty, not wanting anything to do with it.
“Ohoho yes, it’s a wonderful song.  I think you’re familiar with it,” said Alex before singing, “‘DA-DA-DADADA!  DA-DA-DADADA…’”
“Oh no.  Oh no, you don’t,” said Marty, trying to ignore him, “no, no, no.  Not listening, ladadadadadaADADADADADADADA!”
But Marty’s efforts were futile.  “‘Start spreading the news,’” sang Alex joyfully.
“I don’t know you.”
“‘I’m leaving today, YAH!’”
“He’s funny, who is that?”
“‘WE ARE A GREAT BIG PART I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-T,’” sang Alex, “come on…you know you know the words.  Two little words.”
“New York,” said Marty reluctantly, but feeling better.
“‘NEW YORK,’” they both sang.
But their singing caused some of the other animals around the zoo to wake up.  “SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP,” shouted someone, “HEY, I’M SLEEPING HERE!  WE’RE NOT ALL NOCTURNAL YOU KNOW!”
“Hey I’ll knock your ‘turnal’ right off pal,” said Marty, not backing off.
“YEAH, YOU AND WHAT ARMY STRIPES,” said another zoo animal.
“YOU MESS WITH HIM, YOU MESS WITH ME HOWARD,” shouted Alex, happily standing up for Marty.
Ignoring the arguing and complaining neighbors, the two best friends turned to each other again.  “See, Mr. Grumpy Stripes,” said Alex, “we make a great team, the two of us.”
“We sure do,” said Marty, “no doubt about it.”
“So what’re you gonna do,” asked Alex, “go running off to the wild all by yourself?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“You and me,” said Marty, quickly changing his mind, “let’s go.”
“What,” asked a surprised Alex.
“The wild,” suggested Marty, “come on, you and me together.  It’s a straight shot down Fifth Avenue to Grand Central.  We’ll grab a train, we’ll hit north.  We can be back by morning.  No one will ever know.”
“You’re joking,” laughed Alex, “right?”
Seeing that Alex still wasn’t supporting his idea, but keeping in character, Marty said, “yeah, I’m joking, of course I’m joking.  Give me a break.  Like we’re gonna get a train.”
“Good,” said Alex, relieved, “don’t do that.  You really had me worried there.”
“Oh well,” yawned Marty, “I guess I’ll hit the sack.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Alex, agreeing with Marty, “I’ll need to rest my voice for tomorrow.  It’s Senior’s Day, you know.  Have to roar extra loud.  Give ‘em a little jolt.  You know what I’m talking about?”
Alex hopped back into his exhibit while Marty started settling into his sleeping area.  “Good night Ally Al,” said Marty.
Alex got underneath his sleeping den.  He clapped his paws and a red light shone above him.  But as it seemed he was going to fall asleep, he heard bird noises coming from the nearby ambience.  “Oh,” groaned Alex, “they forgot to turn off the ambience again.”
“Don’t worry, it’s cool,” said Marty as he walked over to the ambience, “you know, I got it.”
Using his hind legs, Marty kicked the tall pole and the ambience changed its sound effect to a city styled audio.  With that, Alex smiled before going to rest.  “Ah…much better.”
With Alex asleep, Marty’s sadness came back.  He looked at Alex’s pen before looking at the mural of the African wildlife.  His attempt in telling his friends about his desire to go see adventure was met with opposing ideas and he was now alone in his wish.  Feeling really down about it, he leaned on his exhibit gate and looked at the mural, wondering if perhaps maybe, even if it was for one day, he would ever get a chance to see what he desired.  He stood there, thinking about it as the night went on.  
Meanwhile, in Central Park, the gang gathered at the rendezvous point again.  “Well that was a total bust for poor Marty,” said Jicky.
“I feel for him,” said Yusi, “he wants to see the world, like what we do, but since he’s a zoo animal, and his friends are against that idea, I just don't know what to say.”
“Yeah,” said Riley, “poor guy.  Maybe someday he’ll understand.”
“Yeah, well forgive me for acting in contrast to our sympathy for the zebra, but I’m a little more concerned about his friends,” said Icky, “you think maybe the life in the zoo is what they’re fated to be in?”
“What makes you say that,” asked Ostron.
“They said they know nothing about life outside Central Park, so that makes me think they won’t have the instincts their brethren in the wild have,” said Icky, “even if they do make it to the wild, how will they be able to survive when they’ve been given everything they need at the zoo?”
The team thought about this while Kristie said, “maybe Alex and the others are right.”
“Maybe,” said Claite, “but who knows.  Perhaps they’ll reconsider and see what it’s like to go on adventure.”
“It’s up to them to choose,” said Riley, “as for us, we’ve done our mission at the zoo, but now let’s go exploring in the city, just to see the attractions and monuments before we leave.”
“Good idea,” said Elycia, “it’s always nice to get a feel of New York City whenever we visit.”
Later into the evening, the Central Park zoo remained quiet as the night went on.  Alex was still in his den, enjoying his dream.  “Come on now baby,” he muttered, “my little filet; my little filet mignon with a little fat around the edges.  I like that.  I like a little fat on my…steak, my sweet…juicy steak.  You are a rare delicacy.”
As Alex slept, Melman poked his head into the pen, trying to wake him up.  “Alex,” he whispered, “Alex!  Alex!  Alex!”
“Huh,” asked Alex, “what?”
“You suck your thumb,” asked Melman, having seen Alex suck his thumb in his sleep.
Alex sighed upon being woken up.  “What is it Melman,” he asked.
“Ok, ok,” said Melman nervously, “you know how I have that bladder infection and I have to get up every two hours?  Well I got up to pee, um, and I looked over at Marty’s pen, which I usually don’t do.  I don’t know why, but I did, and this time, I…”
“What Melman,” said Alex, “what’s going on?”
“It’s Marty,” replied the nervous giraffe, “he’s gone.”
“Gone,” asked Alex, shocked, before accidentally bumping his head, “what do you mean gone?”
Alex got out of his den and saw for himself: Marty was nowhere to be seen.  Melman was also there, noticing the hole dug into Marty’s exhibit earlier.  “How long has he been working on this,” he asked before shouting into the hole, “MARTY!  MARTY!”
“He wouldn’t fit down there,” said Gloria.
“MARTY?  MARTY!  MARTY,” exclaimed Alex as he frantically looked in Marty’s sleeping area.
“This doesn’t make any sense,” said Gloria who was worried sick, “where would he go?”
Alex panted over where his friend could be, before remembering what was said at the party.  “Connecticut,” he exclaimed.
“He wouldn’t,” said Gloria.
“Oh no,” exclaimed Melman, “what, what’re we gonna do?  We gotta, we gotta, I mean we gotta, we got…we gotta call somebody.”
Coming up with an idea, Alex ran to the phone booth near the exhibit and punched in some numbers.  He took the phone and, thinking he found the right phone number, he started explaining everything.  “HELLO?  Get me Missing Animals, and hurry.  We’ve got a lost zebra, probably on the way to Connecticut by now and we’re gonna need…”
The number that Alex got was NYC 911.  However, the person that got the call, being unable to understand Alex, only got roars and snarls.  “Hello,” he asked, “hello?”
Back at the zoo, Alex suddenly got a second thought.  “Wait a second.  We can’t call the people,” he said.
“What the…” the person said, only to get hung up.
Fearing that the people already know about Marty’s escape, even after being hung up, Alex tore off the booth and tossed it away.  “They’ll be really mad,” said Alex, “they’ll get Marty transferred for good.  You don’t bite the hand that feeds ya.”
“Mm-hm I know that’s right,” said Gloria.
“And if he’s with that team we met earlier, it’ll mean double trouble,” said Alex, “who knows what crazy stuff they do.  They must’ve had an influence on Marty, which must mean why he wanted to go in the first place.”
“That’s another great point,” replied Gloria.
“We gotta go after him,” said Alex.
“Go after him,” asked Melman.
“He’s not thinking straight.  We gotta stop him from making the biggest mistake of his life.  He’s probably out there lost…cold…confused...” said Alex before sighing, “poor little guy.”
Despite Alex’s fear, Marty wasn’t “lost, cold and confused,” like he thought.  Instead, Marty was strolling down one of the city’s streets like a smooth city goer, examining the surroundings and lights.  As he walked, he saw some other people strolling by, including someone even dressed in a black and white shirt.  Marty found this woman’s shirt very cool before resuming his walk.  Not far away, Claite, Kristie, and the gang were also exploring the city.   They were at FAO Schwarz, checking out the outside scenery.  “They say this is the oldest toy shop ever created,” said Claite.
“My, my, my,” said Ostron, “it must’ve been so popular back then that it’s been around for years.” 
“New York City’s really exciting when you get to see what’s in store,” said Gina.
While Julia looked around, she spotted something on the streets that looked strange.  After examining close, she noticed that it was Marty strolling down the streets.  “What the heck,” she exclaimed, “is that…Marty?”
“Huh,” asked Faja, “what's going on?”
“I think I just saw Marty walking down the street,” said Julia, “outside the zoo.”
“Him walking in the city,” asked Claite, “oh come on, that’s crazy.”
“My eyes didn’t lie Claite,” said Julia, a little irritated, before pulling out her badge and contacting Riley, “Riley, this is Julia.  Do you copy?”
“What is it Julia,” asked Riley.
“We’re at FAO Schwarz,” said Julia, “but I think I spotted Marty the zebra strolling through the streets.”
The rest of the gang, who was near the Minskoff Theatre on Broadway Street, became confused.  “Marty,” asked Tiffany.
“That’s impossible,” said Jicky, “he should be at the zoo.  Why would he be out strolling through the city?”
“I don’t know, but I just saw him,” said Kristie, “should we follow him?”
But Riley, seeing that Marty might want to fulfill his birthday wish, became worried.  “Uh oh.  His birthday wish,” he said, “Kristie, you and the others follow him and find out where he’s going.  He must be trying to visit Connecticut like he wanted to.  We’ll meet you at Grand Central, but keep your disguises on so that no one suspects you guys either.”
“Got it,” replied Kristie before signing off.
“I don’t wanna know what could happen if people see a zebra on the streets,” said Blicky, who had a bad feeling.
“Neither do I,” said Riley, “let’s move.”
Back at the zoo, Alex, Melman and Gloria got out of their exhibits and tried to get out of the zoo boundaries.  Melman helped Alex get over a tall brick wall while Gloria crashed through the wall using her massive strength.  “Melman come on,” said Gloria.
“You know, maybe one of us should wait here in case he comes back,” suggested Melman, who was wearing blue boxes on his hooves.
“Oh no, not now, this is an intervention Melman,” said Gloria, “we all gotta go.”
“What’s the fastest way to Grand Central,” asked a frantic Alex.
“Oh, you should take Lexington,” said Melman who didn’t want to go.
“MELMAN,” shouted Gloria.
“Ok, we…we should take Lexington,” said Melman who crawled through the spot in the wall.
“What about Park,” asked Alex as they rushed into the city.
“No, Park goes two ways, you can’t time the lights,” said Melman.
But the trio wasn’t the only group near the zoo walls.  Mason and Phil, also having gotten out of their enclosures, saw an opening in the wall and became curious.  “I heard Tom Wolfe is speaking at Lincoln Center,” said Mason.
Phil did a gesture with his hands, as he was acting out someone getting dirty and wiping it off him.  Mason understood this and replied, “well of course we’re going to throw poo at him.”
Together, the two chimpanzees followed the trio out of the zoo and into the city.
Back with Marty, he was skating at the ice rink at Rockefeller Plaza.  He did several spins in the air before landing on the ice and skating again.  However, his skate ended with him wiping out and landing on his front legs.
Back with Alex’s group, they were underground at one of the Subway stations.  “I knew we should’ve taken Park,” said an impatient Alex as he looked down the dark tunnels for the train, “are you sure this is the fastest way to Grand Central Station?”
“I don’t know, that’s what Melman said,” said an irritated Gloria.
“Hey, hey you guys,” said Melman as he got out of a nearby restroom, “that room has nifty little sinks you can wash up in and look,” he said before showing a toilet cleaner stuck to his tongue, “free mints.”
“This isn’t a field trip Melman,” said Alex as he tossed Melman’s souvenir aside, “this is an urgent mission to save Marty from throwing his life away.  Now where’s the train?”
Everyone heard a loud rumbling sound coming from the track tunnel.  “Ah, here it comes,” said Melman.
The three looked down the track, but saw nothing.  However, unbeknownst to them, the train was coming from behind them.  Melman turned and saw the train.  He screamed loudly before flinging himself backwards, narrowly dodging the vehicle.  As for Alex and Gloria, they got out of the way too, while Gloria spoke to Alex.  “What did Marty say to you,” asked Gloria sternly, “I asked you to talk to him.”
“I did, I did!  I don’t understand, he, he says ‘let’s go,’ and I said ‘what’re you crazy?’  And he says ‘I’m ten years old,’ and that he has black and white stripes,” said Alex as he and the others got into the train, “so then we sang and…”
But as they got in, the people getting off the train got scared and fled the scene.  The train doors closed as they got inside, though they closed on one of Melman’s hooves.  After a moment of struggling, Melman got it in, though at the cost of losing the blue box that covered it.
Back with Marty, he was getting directions to Grand Central from a police horse.  “What you gotta do is go straight back down West 42nd,” he said.
“Uh-huh,” replied Marty.
“It’s on your left after Vanderbilt.”
“Ok.”
“If you hit the Chrysler Building, you’ve gone too far.”
“Alright,” said Marty who started walking off, “thanks a lot officer.”
Marty resumed his walk down the street, only to be stopped by the police horse.  “HEY!  Wait for the light.”
Marty saw that he nearly crossed a street on a red light.  He backed up onto the sidewalk to wait his turn.  “Freak,” commented the horse.
The police officer riding the horse noticed Marty on the streets and was radioing one of his fellow officers.  “Did you say zebra?”
“Yeah, yeah, that’s right a zebra…right in front of me,” said the officer, “can I shoot it?”
“Negative.”
“Then I’m gonna need some backup.”
The light turned green and Marty walked off again.  Nearby, Julia’s group spotted Marty not too far away.  They were panting from rushing through the crowd of people.  Upon seeing Marty, they became worried.  “Oh, that IS Marty,” said Dicky.
“What’s he doing out there,” asked Faja, “he should be at the…”
“Guys, ssshh,” shushed Julia, “we can’t draw attention to ourselves or him.  We gotta get him and try to return him to the zoo, and fast.”
“Good idea,” said Ostron, “let’s hurry.”
As the group continued trying to get to the zebra, Gina said, “wait a minute.  Why hasn’t anyone started panicking over seeing a zebra from the zoo walk through the city,” only to get taken by Picky and ushered to come on.
“Gina, come on,” he said.
Back with Alex’s group, they were riding on the subway train.  Because of their presence, the train was empty, except for someone who was sitting nearby.  He covered his head with a newspaper as he hid himself from the zoo animals.  Alex, seeing a headline on the newspaper, looked at it while the human nervously and shakily peaked.  “Ah,” said Alex, “Knicks lost again.”
“Eh, what’re you gonna do,” asked Melman.
“Grand Central Station,” said a subway intercom.
“Did that just say ‘Grand Central Station,’ or ‘my aunt’s constipation,’” asked Alex.
“This is it,” said Gloria.
Finally, Marty made it to Grand Central Station.  He walked inside and examined the giant train terminal below him from a viewing platform.  “Grand Central Station,” he said as he admired the beautiful terminal, “it’s grand…and it’s central.”
Underground, Alex saw that the subway was coming up to a station.  After the train came to a sudden stop, Alex pried the doors open and rushed out.  Gloria was right behind him, while Melman struggled to get himself out.  Alex and Gloria rushed past a drummer who was too busy playing his drum to notice them running by.  As for Melman, he got most of his body out of the train, but the subway doors closed on his head.  Squirming in pain, his head got out of the train, hitting a sign hanging overhead, and causing him to lose his balance and crash into the drums.  One of the symbols landed on his head, and the drummer hit it with his stick.  As for Alex, he was way ahead, rushing through the stairways.  His presence caused every human around him to flee in fear.  “Move aside, we have an emergency here.  This is an emergency situation,” said Alex as he watched the people frantically run away, “hey, hey, just chill out.  It’s not that big of an emergency…”
Suddenly, one of the humans started attacking Alex with her purse.  It was an old lady.  After slamming her purse at Alex’s face, she kicked him hard in between the legs.  “HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT,” she shouted as she sprayed something into Alex’s eyes.
As Alex squirmed over getting stuff in his eyes, the lady grabbed his paw and flung him to the ground.  “Lady,” he said, “what is wrong with you?”
The lady slammed her purse at Alex two more times.  “Get a grip on yourselves people,” he said as he got away.
“You’re a bad kitty,” said the lady, ready for more.
Nearby, Marty was looking at the schedule for train departures and arrivals.  He saw that the closest train to leave had just left.  “Dagnabit!  I missed the express,” said Marty, “looks like I’m gonna have to take the Stamford Local.”
“MARTY,” cried Julia as her group appeared on the scene, “Marty!”
“Huh,” asked Marty before seeing Julia’s group appear, “oh hey guys.”
“What’re you doing out here,” asked Julia.
“Don’t you know it’s dangerous to be wandering the city like that,” asked Picky.
“When we saw you on the streets, we became worried,” said Dicky.
“So did we,” said Riley as his group appeared, “you should be at the zoo.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, relax,” said Marty, “I’m ok.  I’m gonna go back to the zoo in the morning.  Besides, it’s not like anything bad’s happened anyway.”
Suddenly, Marty was tackled to the ground by Alex.  Alex’s sudden appearance startled everyone, and caused them to lose parts of their disguises.  “I GOT ‘EM,” shouted Alex as every human around them fled in fear, “I GOT ‘EM!”
“He’s got him,” said Gloria as she and Melman ran up the stairs Alex was on before.
“He’s got him!  He’s got him!  He’s got…” Melman cheered before losing his balance.
He was suddenly whacked in the legs by the ladies’ purse.  Melman was sent spiraling around the terminal before crashing into the center ticket booth and accidentally crashing his head into the center clock.  He pulled himself off, taking the clock with him as he tried finding his way around.  “I’m ok,” he said, “I’m ok.”
“Whoa,” said Marty, completely surprised to see his friends at the station too, “what’re you guys doin’ here?”
“Oh, I’m so glad we found you,” said Alex as he hugged his friend, beyond relieved.
“We were so worried about you,” said Gloria.
“What the heck,” exclaimed Elycia, “it’s Alex, Gloria and Melman!  They’re out of the zoo too?”
“You bet we are,” said Alex, “we came all this way to find Marty.”
“Don’t worry, I’m fine, I’m fine,” said Marty, “look at me.  I’m fine.”
“You’re fine?  Oh he’s fine.  Hey, you hear that?  Marty’s fine.  That’s good to know…‘cause I was just wondering that,” said Alex calmly and happily, before swiftly turning frantic and grabbing Marty’s neck, “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO US MARTY?  I thought we were your friends.”
“WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL,” asked Marty chokingly, “I WAS COMIN’ BACK IN THE MORNING!”
“AND YOU GUYS!  DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT KIND OF DANGER YOU GOT MY BUDDY INTO?  DO YOU,” Alex asked the gang.
“WHAT,” the gang asked, shocked at the comment.
“Hold on a second,” said Blicky, “we didn’t bring Marty with us.  We found him by himself.”
“Everything seemed to be going fine until you three showed up out of nowhere,” complained Claite.
“HEY, don’t you blame us for being out here,” said Alex, “we weren’t the ones who inspired Marty to go exploring out of the zoo.”
“ALEX TAKE IT EASY,” choked Marty, “THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH…”
“Don’t you ever do this again,” said Alex to Marty and the gang, “do you hear me?”
“Do you hear him,” scolded Gloria.
“Guys, we’re running out of time,” said Melman.
“Oh Melman, you broke their clock,” complained Gloria.
“…do this again,” Alex continued scolding Marty and the gang, “don’t you ever, ever do this again.”
“ALRIGHT TIME OUT MISTER,” shouted Riley, “we didn’t do anything to Marty at all, nor did we ask this to happen.”
As they argued, Tiffany and Chicky heard the sound of sirens approaching the station from outside.  “Um, guys,” Chicky said nervously.
“Well we didn’t invite you to the zoo to begin with,” complained Alex, paying no attention to Tiffany.
“Guys,” said Tiffany.
“But Alex…” argued Riley.
“BUT NOTHING,” complained Alex, “IT’S YOURS AND MARTY’S FAULT FOR US BEING HERE!”
“GUYS,” Tiffany and Chicky shouted together.
“WHAT,” Alex and Riley asked frustratingly.
Before anything else could happen, the lights suddenly went out and everyone found themselves surrounded by searchlights coming from police officers.  “Come here,” squirmed Gloria as she tried getting the clock off Melman’s head.
But she suddenly realized that they were surrounded by the police and stopped.  Hundreds of officers rushed towards the animals as a searchlight shone around the area.  It spotted a newspaper being held up.  The penguins were also at the station, and upon seeing that they were caught, Skipper said, “we’ve been ratted out boys.”
They held up their flippers as Alex and Marty noticed all of the officers surrounding them, pointing their guns at them.  A group of firefighters was also there.  But the person that made Alex, Marty and the gang shutter was the old lady.  Now surrounded with no way out, a silence fell over Grand Central.  All of the lights shone on the group as they froze.  “Cute and cuddly boys,” said Skipper as he and the other penguins tried acting adorable to the officers, “cute and cuddly.”
Nearby, Mason and Phil, wearing a human coat, got money from a ticket booth, but suddenly found themselves surrounded by guns.  Now with their cover blown, Mason held his hands up high.  “If you have any poo, fling it now,” he whispered to Phil.
Everyone stayed completely still as the humans held them at their mercy.  “It’s the man,” whispered Marty.
“Nobody move.  They can’t see us if we don’t move,” whispered Jicky before quietly turning to the officers, “you know you can’t see us.”
“Jicky shut up,” complained Picky, “they know we’re here.”
Marty looked at the humans before trying to say something.  “Good evening officers,” he said.
“No, no, no, you don’t talk now, ok?  You’re not so good with the ‘putting the words together and they’re coming out good’ thing,” said Alex as he let go of Marty, “now keep it ‘shh.’”
“Alex, let me just…”
“Riley, just zip it,” said Alex annoyed, “I’ve got this handled.  Just stay there and be quiet.”
With Marty and Riley silenced, Alex turned to the officers and tried acting casual.  “Hey, how ya doin’?  Yeah, you know what, everything’s cool.  Just, uh, had a little situation here.”
An animal control officer was sent onto the scene.  He nervously tried getting away, but the police blocked him from making a getaway.  “Little internal situation.  Actually my friend just went a little crazy.  Happens to everybody.  The city gets to us all.  Just went a little cuckoo in the head thanks to these guys,” said Alex.
“HEY, don’t be callin’ me cuckoo in the head,” complained Marty.
“I thought I told you it wasn’t our…”
“Just…SHUSH,” complained Alex, getting both Marty and Riley quiet, “I will handle this.”
But as Alex turned back to the people, the old lady kicked him in between the legs again.  “I got him,” said the lady before getting carried away.
“Oh…would you give a guy a break,” squirmed Alex agonizingly before turning back to the officers, “we’re just gonna take my little friend here home and…uh, forget this every happened, alright?”
The animal control officer nervously held his gun as he backed away from the approaching Alex.  “No harm, no fowl, right,” asked Alex, “oh no, no, no, no.  Hey it’s cool.  It’s me Alex the lion…from the zoo.”
Thinking they didn’t recognize him, Alex did one of his stage poses.  “Rrrrr,” he growled.
But to the humans, they didn’t understand a word that Alex said.  All they heard was growls coming out of his mouth.  Still confused, Alex turned to his friends.  “What’s the matter with them,” he asked.
“They don’t understand you,” argued Riley, “that’s what’s wrong.”
“Why can’t they,” asked an annoyed Alex.
Before Riley could answer, the animal control officer shot Alex in the rear with a tranquilizer dart.  “Ow,” squirmed Alex before getting dizzy, “ow.”
Alex spun around in circles, barely keeping his footing before falling backwards.  Gloria caught him as he tried pulling himself together.  “Wow…ooh I feel really, really, weird,” he said before seeing his friends and the gang stand above him, “hey…aw…I love you guys.  I love you so…much.”
Alex’s vision started going out of control and he suddenly found himself in a weird world of morphing patterns of hippo, zebra and giraffe skin.  He saw multiple visions of Marty, Melman and the gang doing a dance of sorts.  Suddenly, one of Melman’s giraffe spots morphed into a city skyscraper.  Several other skyscrapers appeared and a fireworks display went off all around the city.  Suddenly, something flew in front of Alex.  It was Gloria dressed as the Statue of Liberty.  With no hesitation, she whacked Alex with her torch, destroying his bizarre vision and leaving his world in black.
After a moment of blackness, Alex slowly opened his eyes.  He saw two animal control guards guarding him, an announcer woman and a large crowd of people.  But this crowd wasn’t like the one during his show.  Instead, everyone was angry and yelling at the zoo officials.  “Last night’s dramatic incident in Grand Central is an example of what animal rights wackos have been shouting for years,” the announcer said, “the animals clearly don’t belong in captivity.  Now they are to be sent back to their natural habitat, where they will live their lives in the freedom they so clearly desire.”
“Hey, a little help,” asked Alex as he extended his paw for help.
“He’s awake,” exclaimed one of the guards, “HE’S AWAKE!”
The crowd of people scurried to safety as several darts flew around the area.  One of them landed on Alex’s palm.  “Ah man,” he complained before getting the same weird vision once again, and being left in a dark world.
After a long time of being passed out in darkness, Alex slowly opened his eyes again.  Dizzy from the experience and disoriented, Alex groaned as he tried waking up.  “Uh…oh my head,” he muttered before trying to get up.
As he moved upward, he bumped his head on something.  “Oh…ah…what the…” he complained as a light source lit up the area.
With the light being lit, Alex saw that he wasn’t back at the zoo, nor was he at Grand Central anymore.  “Wait…what…where…” he asked as he felt his way around before realizing that he was in a wooden crate, “I’m in a box!  Oh no!  No, no, not a box.  No, they can’t transfer me.  Not me.”
Now seeing what could be happening to him, and scared of being alone, Alex started despairing.  “Oh no…I can’t breath.  I can’t breath.  Darkness creeping in…can’t breath…can’t breath.  Walls closing in around me,” he whimpered as he shivered in fear, “so alone…so alone…”
“Alex,” a voice came from nearby, “Alex, are you there?”
Alex recognized this voice and became hopeful.  “Marty,” he asked.
“Yeah, talk to me buddy,” said Marty, who was also in a crate, right next to Alex.
“Oh Marty, you’re here,” said Alex relieved that he wasn’t alone.
“What’s going on,” asked Marty, “are you ok?”
“This doesn’t look good Marty.”
“Alex, Marty, is that you,” a voice came below them both.
This was Gloria’s voice, and like Alex and Marty, she was also in a crate.  “Gloria,” exclaimed Marty.
“You’re here too,” said Alex, relieved to hear Gloria’s voice.
“I am lovin’ the sound of your voice,” said Marty happily.
“What is goin’ on,” asked Gloria.
“We’re all in crates,” said Alex.
“Oh no, I…”
“Oh,” a voice yawned near Alex and Gloria’s crate, “sleeping just knocks me out.”
This voice was coming from Melman, who was in a tall crate, but not tall enough for him to stand.  “Melman,” exclaimed Gloria.
“Melman,” added Alex.
“Is that Melman,” asked Marty.
“Are you ok,” asked Gloria.
“Yeah, no, I’m fine,” said Melman as he stretched, “I often doze off while I’m getting an MRI.”
“Melman, you’re not getting an MRI,” said Alex.
“CAT scan?”
“No, no CAT scan,” said Alex, “it’s a transfer.  It’s a zoo transfer.”
“ZOO TRANSFER,” exclaimed Melman, becoming worried, “oh no.  No, no, I can’t be transferred.  I have an appointment with Dr. Goldberg at five.” 
“Melman…”
“There are prescriptions that have to be filled…”
“Melman,” said Gloria trying to calm her friend down.
“…no other zoo can afford my medicine care,” said Melman, “and I am not going HMO.”
“Easy Melman, it’s gonna be ok,” said Marty, “we are going to be okizay.”
“No Marty,” said an annoyed Alex, “we’re not gonna be okizay.  Now because of you, we’re ruined.”
“Because of me,” asked Marty, “I fail to see how this is my fault.”
“You kiddin’, right Marty,” asked Gloria.
“You, you and that group ticked off the people,” said Alex, “you bit the hand Marty.  You bit the hand.  ‘I don’t know who I am.  I don’t know who I am.  I gotta go find myself in the wild.’  Oh please.”
“Hey, I did not ask you to come after me,” said Marty, “did I?”
“He does have a point,” commented Melman.
“What,” asked Alex, shocked.
“I did say we should stay at the zoo, but you guys…”
“Melman, just shut it,” snapped Alex, “you’re the one who suggested this whole idea to him in the first place.”
“Alex, leave Melman outta this please,” said Gloria.
“Thank you Gloria,” said Melman annoyed with Alex, “besides Alex, it’s not my fault that we were transferred.”
“Melman, shut it,” said Gloria, not wanting anymore arguments, “does anybody feel nauseous?” 
“I feel nauseous,” said Melman.
“Melman, you always feel nauseous,” commented Alex.
The four friends were on a one-way ticket to Africa, via boat.  The giant boat was already over the Atlantic Ocean and had gone a long distance from New York City.  The boat horn went off as the freighter travelled across the wide, wide sea.  On another part of the boat, the gang was also in individual crates.  Riley slowly opened his eyes as he heard the horn go off.  “Oh…what…” he asked as his vision started clearing up after a long sleep.
Riley looked around, and to his shock, he saw that he was stuck in a wooden crate, alone.  He peaked out of his crate and saw the ocean.  “Oh no,” he muttered, “no, no, no!”
“Oh brother,” someone muttered near him, “someone get me a soft pillow ‘cause my head hurts.”
“Guys,” asked Riley, recognizing the voice, “Is that you?”
“Riley,” asked Blicky, “Riley, buddy, where are you?  It’s dark like crazy in here.”
“Riley, guys, help me,” cried Julia, who was freaking out about being stuck in a crate, “I’m stuck in a box?”
“Huh?  Julia, is that you,” asked Ari who just woke up, “where are you?  Actually, where am I?”
“What the heck,” exclaimed Claite, “where am I too?”
“What’s happening to us,” asked Elycia.
“Guys,” asked Riley, “guys!  Calm down!  I can hear each of you panicking.  From the looks of it, we’re all stuck in crates.”
Suddenly, everyone heard a loud thud coming from a nearby crate.  “OW!  What in the…WHAT,” Chicky exclaimed as he noticed where he was, “I’m trapped in a box.  People oughta know I don’t like being restrained like this.”
“Chicky, is that you,” asked Blicky.
“Yeah, that’s me,” said Chicky, “but I can’t tell where I am, or how I can hear y’all.”
“We’re stuck in crates,” said Riley, “and from looking outside, we’re over an ocean.”
“Say what now,” Gina’s voice cried from nearby.
“Lavender lollipops,” exclaimed Faja, “what’s going on?”
“Smoldering Spoils,” exclaimed Ostron, “what is this?”
“Gina, Faja, Ostron,” asked Fojo, “where are you?  I’m stuck in a box!”
“We all are Fojo,” said Tiffany, “we’re all stuck in boxes.”
“What do we do,” asked Kristie.
“Everyone, calm down,” said Riley, “let’s not panic.”
“Not panic,” asked Chicky, “WE’RE STUCK IN BOXES!”
“The people at Grand Central Station knocked out us all out with darts, like they did with Alex, and put us in boxes.  Now we’re travelling across the ocean on boat,” said Riley, “they must think we’re wild animals, just like with Marty and the others.”
“What do we do now,” asked Kristie, “what if they do something bad to us?”
“We’ve gotta try and get out,” said Riley, “if only we had our weapons with us, then it would be easy.”
“And if we had enough space to move around in these boxes,” said Picky who didn’t like the tight enclosures.
“Why didn’t we bring our equipment with us in the first place,” asked Chicky.
“We had to avoid the locals getting suspicious of us,” said Riley, “the only things we have on us are our badges, but since we can’t call our authorities without the help of the Alpha Star, we’re in trouble.”
“We gotta try and get outta here though,” said Tiffany as she tried ramming out of her box, “we can’t let these people do whatever they’re gonna do to us.”
“Everyone, try busting out of your crates, and quickly,” said Riley as he tried punching and kicking out of his crate.
On another part of the boat, the penguins, also having been tranquilized at Grand Central, were in their crate.  Kowalski had his head sticking out of one of the box holes and he examined a sign painted on his crate.  “Progress report,” ordered Skipper as he peaked out.
“It’s an older code Skipper,” replied Kowalski, “I can’t make it out.”
“You, higher mammal,” Skipper said to a nearby animal.
Skipper was pointing towards Mason, who had his head out of the crate too.  “Can you read,” asked Skipper.
“No,” replied Mason, “Phil can read though.  Phil?!”
Phil got himself up, out of the pile of cans and looked at Kowalski, who pointed at the sign.  Phil did some gestures with his hands while Mason watched.  “Ship…to…Kenya…wildlife preserve…Africa,” translated Mason.
“Africa,” asked Skipper, “that ain’t gonna fly.  Rico!”
Rico poked his head out of the box and coughed out a paper clip.  Rico took the clip and stuck the tip in one of the lock holes.  The lock unlocked, allowing the penguins to get out of their crate.
In another part of the ship, a sailor walked around while whistling a tune.  He headed down a hallway to check on the crates, but as he went around the corner, he was suddenly knocked out and pulled away.  Skipper, Kowalski, Rico and Private peaked from behind the wall and, like a SWAT team, snuck around the area, trying to avoid getting spotted.  Quietly sneaking by the walls and engines, they hid themselves behind every obstacle they could find.  Skipper looked ahead and gestured for his teammates to move forward.  They did so, and while they looked out for trouble, Skipper rolled over to a ladder and helped his teammates go up.  The four penguins reached the control room and Skipper kicked the door open, allowing him and the others to slide in and sneak up on the captain.  The captain was oblivious to the penguins’ arrival, for he was busy listening to music and drinking his coffee.  Rico silently raised his flipper and smacked it on the captain’s neck, knocking him out cold.
Back with Alex and Marty, they had begun an argument about Marty’s action of leaving the zoo.  “I was the star of the greatest city on Earth.  A king, loved by my people, and you ruined EVERYTHING,” complained Alex as he rammed into Marty’s crate.
“Guys, listen,” said Gloria, “let’s be civil.”
“‘LOVED?’  If the people loved you, it’s only because they didn’t know the REAL YOU,” replied Marty as he rammed back at Alex’s crate.
“Don’t make me come up there,” said Gloria sternly, “I’d get the whoopin’ on both of y’all.”
“I thought I knew the real YOU,” complained Alex as the two continued fighting, “your black and white stripes, they cancel each other out.”
As the two kept bumping each other’s crates, the ropes around Marty’s crate started breaking off.  The banging of crates was starting to bother Melman too, since he was next to Alex’s crate and getting dizzy.  “STOP IT!  STOP IT!  STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT, STOP IT…”
“YOU’RE NOT HELPING THE SITUATION,” Gloria complained, still trying to break the two up, as Alex banged Marty’s crate off Gloria’s and onto the boat.
Meanwhile, the gang was still stuck in their crates, unable to get out.  Claite banged on his box, managing to loosen some of the ropes restraining the crates, before getting exhausted.  “It’s not working Riley,” he said, “I can’t get out.”
“Neither can I,” said Yusi, “these crates are very strong.”
“I can’t get out either,” said Riley, “even with my kung fu skills, I can’t do so much as budge my box very far, but we gotta keep trying.  We gotta get outta here at any cost.”
“I don’t like where this is going guys,” said Kristie who was getting nervous again, “I’m scared.”
“So am I,” said Dicky, “I’m also worried about Marty and the others.”
“I have a feeling they’re not taking this well, like we are,” said Ostron.
Meanwhile, at the control room, the penguins had secured the area and were trying to seize access to the controls.  “Status,” Skipper ordered Private.
Private, who was trying to find the codes, jumped on a keyboard, typing in several letters into a computer.  “It’s no good Skipper,” he said, “I don’t know the codes.”
“Don’t give me excuses.  GIVE ME RESULTS,” snapped Skipper as he grabbed Private and whacked him around the head multiple times, before turning to Kowalski, “navigation.”
Kowalski was on a desk, trying to find out where they were on the map.  After looking at the many maps, Kowalski turned to Skipper and shrugged his shoulders, having no idea.  “Alright…let me think,” said Skipper before hearing the captain muffling, “AND SHUT HIM UP!”
Rico, who was watching the now tied up and gagged captain, whacked him in the head.  Private kept typing on the keyboard with his feet, still trying to figure out the code to the computer.  Suddenly, the computer started beeping and Private saw the message ‘override accepted.’  “I DID IT,” he exclaimed happily.
“Let’s get this tin can turned around,” said Skipper as a siren went off.
Kowalski turned the steering wheel to the left.  He slid to the left wall of the ship as the alarm went off.  The ship’s sudden turn to the left caused it to tilt in said direction.  But as the ship turned, it caused Alex and his friends’ crates to start sliding off their platform and roll towards the edge of the boat.  The same thing happened with the gang’s crates.  “WHOA, NOW WHAT’S HAPPENING,” exclaimed Jicky.
“It’s like we’re in a washing machine,” said Blicky.
“EVERYONE, HOLD ON,” cried Riley.
The crates rolled towards the edge of the boat, not faraway from Alex’s group.  Alex, Marty and Melman’s crate all piled up on each other near a metal chain gate.  Alex looked out of a hole in his crate, but all he saw was Gloria’s crate coming right at him.  Unable to do anything but watch, Alex got flung backwards as the crate crashed into him.  This force caused the gate to break off and send the four screaming friends off the boat and into the ocean.  As for the gang, they were piled up on another gate, but the gate broke through and they all plummeted into the ocean.  Luckily, the crates were capable of floating, and they all floated up to the surface.  However, they weren’t able to steer or paddle in any direction.  They were all at the mercy of the ocean current.  “Riley, GUYS, HELP,” cried Dicky as he noticed his friends float away from him in different directions.
“DICKY,” cried Elycia, who was separating from the others too.
“WE’RE IN THE OCEAN,” added Blicky, “SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!”
“GUYS,” cried Riley, “COME BACK!  NO!  HANG IN THERE!”
But there was nothing Riley could do.  He watched as the crates containing his friends floated away from him, miles away.  As for Alex, he got himself together as his crate floated on the ocean surface.  “Guys,” he asked before seeing that they were floating away from him too, “GLORIA!  MELMAN!  MARTY!”
As he floated on another wave, he caught brief glimpse of the three crates.  “ALEX,” cried Marty.
“MARTY?”
“ALEX,” cried Marty again before disappearing.
“MARTY!  NO WAIT!  COME BACK MARTY,” cried Alex before seeing that he was now on his own, “don’t go.”
Now on his own, in the big, wide, ocean, Alex could do nothing but ride along with the ocean current.  He was carried very far from the boat and his friends in a world that was unfamiliar to him.  Fearful of what was going to happen next, Alex held onto himself, terrified and saddened about being alone.
Into the night, Alex shivered as he tried keeping warm in the freezing evening.  Suddenly, his crate started rolling around again.  Alex, taken by surprise, trying getting himself under control, but was unable to grab anything.  Outside, his crate was being swept up by a wave about to crash onto a beach.  Upon landing, the crate opened and Alex was sent flying out and spinning in circles.  He stopped, face down into the sand.  He got himself up and he spat out all the sand in his mouth.  As he moaned in disgust while trying to get it all out, he noticed something in front of him: a giant amount of large trees.  Alex screamed in shock as he looked upon the huge jungle.  Nervous, Alex turned around, but couldn’t see any of his friends around.  “Marty?  Melman?  Gloria,” he asked as he looked around.
Seeing that he was still alone, Alex started freaking out.  “MARTY!  MELMAN!  GLORIA,” he cried out before running down the beach, while staying away from the washing water of the coast, “MARTY!  MELMAN!  GLORIA!  HEY, ANYONE!  HELLO!”
The following morning, Alex kept wandering aimlessly down the beach, desperately trying to find his friends.  Throughout the night, he found no trace of them and he was getting exhausted from the long night of crying out their names.  “Marty, Melman, Gloria,” muttered Alex as he dizzily walked down the coast, “Gloria, Melman, Marty.  Marty, Gelman, Gloria, Marty Melman, Morty, Morty, Gelman, Regis, Kelly…Matt, Katie, Al…”
But as he looked around, he spotted something in the distance, behind some rocks.  It was a tall, thin object moving around.  Alex also heard a voice coming from that direction.  “Get me outta this thing.  Somebody, hello…”
Recognizing this voice, Alex became hopeful.  He got on top of the rocks and saw Melman, still stuck in his crate, but having his legs free and walking around.  It wasn’t a hallucination.  It was actually Melman, having washed up on the same beach.  “Get me outta this thing, right now,” complained Melman as he tried getting out, “hello?  Somebody?”
“MELMAN,” exclaimed Alex happily as he approached the giraffe.
Melman heard Alex’s voice.  “Alex,” asked Melman, “is that you?”
“Melman I got ya,” said Alex as he tried grabbing onto Melman’s box, “hang on, hang on, I got ya.”
But Melman, in his struggle to keep his balance, tripped and accidentally landed on top of Alex.  Alex dug himself out and rushed to the top of Melman’s box.  “Melman,” he said.
He tore off the wood and saw Melman’s exhausted eyes.  “I got ya buddy,” said Alex as he ripped apart the box.
Now having made a big enough hole, Alex grabbed Melman’s ossicones and tried pulling him out.  “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,” complained Melman as Alex pulled him out, “OWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW…”
Alex managed to pull Melman out to the neck.  The rest of his buddy was stuck in the box.  “Wait a second,” said Alex, coming up with an idea, “wait right there.”
Alex grabbed a nearby tree and rushed near the water.  “Alex, what’re you doing,” asked Melman.
“Getting ya outta the box,” said Alex as he pointed the tip of the tree towards Melman, “…relax.”
“Alex,” asked Melman, before seeing what Alex was planning on doing.
“Giraffe Corner Pocket,” exclaimed Alex before running towards Melman with the tree pointed forward.
“Wait…WAIT, WAIT, NO COME ON, WAIT…”
“HERE GOES NOTHING,” said Alex.
“WAIT, WAIT, WAIT, WAIT…”
“HOLD STILL,” said Alex.
“WAIT ALEX…”
“HOLD STILL, HOLD STILL…”
“NO, NO, NO, COME ON, COME ON…”
“HERE I COME,” said Alex as he prepared to ram Melman out of the box.
“LOOK, LOOK, LOOK, LOOK,” cried Melman, trying to distract Alex, “IT’S GLORIA!  IT’S GLORIA!”
Alex stopped and looked.  To his, and even Melman’s surprise, it was Gloria’s box.  There were six other crates alongside hers, but Alex and Melman recognized Gloria’s.  “Oh hey, that is Gloria,” said Melman, before looking down and seeing that Alex’s tree was right at his belly.
As Melman sighed in complete relief, Alex dropped the tree and rushed to Gloria’s crate.  “Gloria,” he exclaimed.
Alex knocked on Gloria’s crate, hoping that she would get it open.  Suddenly, the hippo kicked the wood off, sending it, and Alex, flying in the air towards Melman.  Alex landed on Melman’s crate, destroying it and breaking it into pieces.  Alex got himself up and tried to get to Gloria.  “Gloria,” he said before accidentally getting hit by the pieces of Melman’s box.
Gloria came out with seaweed on her head, two starfish on her chest and a crab on her belly.  “Alrighty boys, fun’s over,” she said.
They left the scene as Alex rushed to Gloria.  “GLORIA,” he exclaimed.
“ALEX,” exclaimed Gloria as the two embraced.
As they embraced, the other crates started opening up.  Having been weakened by the sea currents, one of the boxes got punched through by a hand.  It was Claite and Picky.  He head-butted his way out of the crate before collapsing onto the beach.  He opened his jaws and let a lobster out of his mouth.  “Sorry, that was my bad,” he said, “didn’t see you there.”
“Oh…my head,” a voice came from one of the crates, “what happened.”
“Ostron, is that you,” asked Picky, hopeful.
He tore open the box and saw Ostron, exhausted but alive.  “Guys,” exclaimed Ostron, “you’re ok.”
As Claite and Picky helped his friend out of the crate, another one of the crates got a hole punched through.  Out came Tiffany, who was tired out.  After blowing sea water out of her trunk, she saw two of her teammates out of their crates.  “CLAITE, PICKY, Ostron,” she exclaimed.
“TIFFANY,” exclaimed Picky as he and Ostron embraced together.
“Tiffany, guys,” a voice came from one of the crates, “now I’m just hearing things.”
“What in the hay,” asked another voice, “where am I?”
“Oh, what,” asked another, “what happened?”
Tiffany, Claite and Picky tore apart the boxes and they saw Chicky, Gina and Elycia.  “AH the light,” exclaimed Chicky as the sunlight beamed into his box, “it hurts my eyes and all and…”
But Chicky’s complaint stopped when he saw his friends.  “GUYS,” he exclaimed happily, “aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.”
“Gina, Chicky, Elycia thank goodness,” said Ostron as the group embraced.
“Huh?  Guys,” asked a shocked Elycia, “IT’S YOU?!”
“That’s right,” said Tiffany as they embraced, “I’m so glad you’re ok.”
“WHOA,” a voice came from the ocean.
Everyone looked and saw Marty riding the waves like a surfer.  “MARTY,” asked Gloria, shocked but happy.
“MARTY,” exclaimed Alex.
Marty was riding on two dolphins like they were surfboards.  Together, they rode some of the waves, having a good time.  But Marty was not alone.  Riley, Julia, Blicky, Dicky and Faja were also riding dolphins out on the ocean.  “Riley,” exclaimed Elycia, “JULIA!  GUYS!”
“THEY’RE HERE TOO,” added Ari, beyond happy to see them ok too.
“YEAH, ALRIGHT, THAT’S RIGHT,” exclaimed Marty as he rode the waves, “LEFT, LEFT, LEFT, NO, NO, YOUR LEFT, YOUR LEFT, YOUR LEFT!  WAHOO!  Right here’s good.”
The dolphins dropped off Marty and the others.  “Thanks for the ride guys,” said Riley.
“You know, I don’t really have anything on me right now.  I’ll have to get ya later,” said Marty.
The happy dolphins chattered back in response before leaving.  Marty imitated the dolphin sounds before saying, “to you too.”
Marty shook himself around, getting the water off him as Dicky said, “wow, that was fun.”
“Yeah it was,” said Faja, “I do wish the others could have been with us though.”
“I just hope wherever they are, they’re alright,” said Riley who became concerned.
“Riley,” Elycia cried from the distance.
Everyone looked and saw Elycia and the other gang members running towards them.  Filled with happiness upon seeing his friends ok, Riley started running towards them.  “GUYS,” he said.
“MARTY,” Alex cried as he ran towards his best friend, “MARTY!”
Upon seeing Alex, Marty grew happy too.  “ALEX,” he exclaimed as he ran towards him.
The two groups ran to each other, with the sun rising over the ocean, like it was a special reunion.  “MARTY,” exclaimed Alex.
“ALEX,” replied Marty.
“MARTY!”
“AL!”
“Marty,” said Alex before turning angry.
“Alex,” asked Marty who noticed Alex’s sudden change in tone.
“MARTY,” yelled Alex.
Seeing that Alex was angry, Marty turned around and ran the opposite direction.  “OH SUGAR HONEY ICE TEA!”
The gang members stopped running when they saw Alex chase after Marty, completely bummed that Alex ruined the emotional reunion.  “MARTY,” snapped Alex.
“HEY, HOLD UP, HOLD UP…”
“I’M GONNA KILL YOU…” 
“HOLD UP, WHOA…”
“JUST COME HERE!”
“WHOA WAIT, WAIT, CALM DOWN, CALM DOWN…”
“GET BACK HERE!  I’LL JUST KILL YOU MORE…”
Relieved to see Alex and Marty ok, Gloria and Melman rushed towards them and together, they gave a group hug.  The gang, also ignoring the bickering pair, resumed their emotional embrace.  “Oh guys, you’re ok,” said Riley, beyond relieved to see his teammates alive and well, “I was so worried about you all.  Praise Celestia that we’re all together again.”
“It’s alright Riley, we’re fine,” said Yusi as she stroked Riley’s head with her trunk, happy to have him back too.
“So are we,” replied Kristie.
“Ditto,” added Blicky.
As for Alex’s group, they were also happy to see the gang ok, but also to have each other back.  But in the group hug, Alex grinned angrily at Marty.  “Oh look at us,” said Gloria, “we’re all here together safe and sound.”
“Yeah, here we are,” said Melman, before getting confused, “where exactly is ‘here?’”
Everyone else became confused and they tiptoed towards the opposite direction.  Here, they saw an enormous jungle, filled with tall trees.  They were like the skyscrapers at New York City, except they were smaller.  “Look at the size of that,” said Picky.
“Whoa,” said Elycia, “where are we?” 
Melman looked around, examining the surroundings before concluding, “San Diego.”
Everyone looked at Melman with confused looks.  “San Diego,” asked Gloria.
“White sandy beaches, cleverly simulated natural environment, wide open enclosures.  I’m telling you, this could be the San Diego Zoo,” said Melman, “complete with fake rocks.”
Melman tapped on one of the rocks.  “Wow!  That looks real.”
“San Diego,” asked Alex, “what could be worse than San Diego?”
“I don’t know, but this place is crack-a-lackin’,” said Marty, who liked the environment, “oh, I could hang here.  I could hang here.”
But as Marty looked back at the others, he saw Alex running towards him angrily.  “I’M GONNA KILL YOU MARTY!”
“TAKE IT EASY, TAKE IT EASY,” exclaimed Marty as he ran.
“I’M GONNA STRANGLE YOU…”
“CALM DOWN!”
“THEN BURY YOU, DIG YOU UP AND CLONE YOU, AND KILL ALL YOUR CLONES!”
“WAIT A SECOND, TIME OUT,” begged Marty as he hid behind Gloria.
“AND THEN I’M NEVER TALKING TO YOU AGAIN, AND WHEN YOU’RE FINISHED, THOSE GUYS ARE NEXT,” yelled Alex as he briefly glimpsed at the gang.
“STOP IT,” shouted Gloria as he picked Alex and sternly said, “look, we’re just gonna find the people, get checked in, and have this mess straightened out.”
Gloria put Alex back on the ground as Claite said, “we can’t take anymore of your whining and complaining, Mr. King of New York City.  You’ve done more than enough.”
Not liking the gator’s comment, but not willing to argue against Gloria’s wishes of sincerity, Alex stood down.  “Oh great, this is just great: Sand Diego,” he complained, “now I’ll have to compete with Shamu, and his smug little grin.  I can’t top that.  Can’t top it.  I’m ruined.  I’m done, I’m out of the business.  It’s your fault Marty, you and those guys ruined me.”
“And for the last time: we didn’t bring Marty with us to Grand Central,” said Yusi sternly.
“Yusi’s right,” added Elycia, “he came under his own free will.  That’s the way it went.  Period!”
“Good grief,” complained Blicky quietly, “who knew Alex was such a show freak.”
“I’m sure he’ll get over it eventually,” said Riley, “anymore of this arguing and things will go bad.”
“Things are already going bad, ‘cause we have a problem,” said Picky.
“What the heck,” said Kristie as she tried activating her badge, “my badge is offline.”
“So is mine,” said Dicky.
“That’s not supposed to happen,” said Gina, “mine’s not activating.”
“That’s what I was trying to say,” said Picky, “my badge isn’t working either.  I think it’s because it soaked up too much saltwater.”
“Didn’t we bring our badges when we went to Atlantica,” asked Jicky, “why is it now being a problem?”
“We had water proofing plastic covering our badges that one adventure, but we didn’t bring it with us here because I never thought we’d be taking our adventure to sea,” said Riley.
“What do we do now Riley,” asked Faja.
“As long as we stay together, we should be ok,” said Riley, “but I’m not sure how we’re gonna get off this island, since we have no communication and we’re stranded on here.  This is a serious problem for all of us.”
But as the gang thought about what to do next, everyone heard a smooth voice coming from nearby.  “Hi-dilly hi there Riley.” 
Everyone looked around, confused.  “Huh,” asked Riley, “who said that?” 
“Over here compadre,” the voice replied.
Riley turned and saw a banded mongoose and a giant forest hog on a nearby bushes.  But Riley recognized these mammals and became surprised.  “Toby? Denko,” he asked, “Guys!  Oh my gosh, I can’t believe it’s you.”
“Yes it is me old friend,” said Toby.
“Toby and Denko’s here too,” asked Elycia, “that’s awesome!  It’s been so long since we last rescued you.  What’re you doing here?”
“Why, I’m here exploring this here island you guys are on,” said Denko, “but hey, what’s wrong with my favorite group of travellers?  You look a little down in the dumps, perturbed, bothered even.”
“That’s ‘cause we’ve been through so many troubles and now we’re dealing with this,” said Claite.
“We got washed up onto this island after an incident in New York City with these four zoo animals: Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman,” said Riley.
“In addition to that, we can’t call our authorities or any backup to help us get off, because our badges are offline,” said Julia.
“Boy, that’s a drag alright,” said Toby, who stayed calm, “I’ll tell you what I do when things like this happen: I…sing.”
“Wait…you sing,” asked Fojo.
“Yes indeedy, when you’re in needy, just croon a tune with good ol’ Toby,” said Toby.
Imagining himself on stage with a microphone, and a spotlight shining on him, Toby and Denko broke out in song.
Toby and Denko: Oh when the saints…go marching in
Oh when the saints go marching in
I want to be in that number
When the saints…go…MAR…CHING…I-I-I-I-I-I-NNN
Saints go marching in
“There,” said Toby, “what do ya think?”
The gang, having liked this music number, smiled at the mammals.  “Well, that was a nice song,” said Julia.
“Yeah,” added Elycia, “thanks for singing that to us.”
“Think of that all you want guys, but just so you know, that’s not gonna get us home,” said Alex, who was still in despair, “we’re still stuck here all thanks to you and a certain black and white fellow hiding behind her.”
Knowing that Alex was referring to him, Marty tried calming him down.  “Come on Alex,” he said, “do you honestly think I intended for all of this to happen?  You want me to say that I’m sorry?  Is that what you want?  Ok, I’m…”
“Shh,” shushed Alex as he looked into the jungle.
“He just shushed me,” complained Marty.
“Marty, look, you gotta be just a little bit more un…”
“Shush,” said Alex again.
“Don’t you shush me,” said Gloria sternly.
But Alex didn’t silence the two because of what happened.  “Do you hear that,” he asked, “don’t you hear that?”
Everyone listened carefully and heard very quiet noises coming form within the jungle.  Curious, the group headed into the jungle.  As they got deeper and deeper, they heard the sound getting louder and louder.  It was the sound of music.  “I hear it now,” said Marty.
“Where there’s music, there’s people,” said Gloria.
“We’ll go right to the Head Honcho,” said Alex.
“A sidewalk would be nice,” said Melman.
“Yeah, what a dump,” said Gloria as they ran past the huge vegetation.
“They should call it the San Di-Lame-o Zoo.  First they tell ya, ‘hey we got this great open plan thing, let the animals run wild,’” said Alex as Melman got his neck stuck in some flowers hanging overhead, only to get loose quickly, “next thing you know, there’s flowers in your hair and everybody’s huggin’ everybody.”
“This place kinda grows on ya,” said Marty as the group ran past a branch, “this way guys, come on.”
But as Gloria pushed the branch aside, she accidentally let go of it when Alex was about to run past it.  The branch hit Alex in the mouth, knocking him onto his back.  Alex groaned in pain and he clenched his mouth with his paws.  Alex tried catching up to the others but he accidentally bumped his foot onto a rock.  As he hopped in pain, his other foot stepped on a red thorn.  As Alex hopped around, he accidentally ran through a spider web.  Alex tried pulling himself together, but he kept crashing into things and finally bumping into a tree and collapsing onto his back.  But this wasn’t the end.  The tree started falling to the ground.  “OH NO,” cried Alex.
The tree landed on Alex while everyone else ran to the source of the music.  Clearly Alex wasn’t used to the environment at all.  
The source of the music was coming from a giant tree that overshadowed the others around it.  The group, oblivious to what was happening to Alex, stopped behind some leaves.  On the leaves, there shadows of some dancing figures.  Thinking they were people, Gloria said, “ok, let’s make a good impression on the people.  Smiles everyone.  Let’s get it together.”
“You got it Gloria,” said Tiffany, “let’s look and act nice.”
Everyone put up some smiles, though Gloria wasn’t so sure about Melman’s.  Melman was smiling nervously.  “Is that the best you can do Melman,” asked Gloria.
“Oh, I’m not smiling,” said Melman, “it’s gas.”
“Ok, well great, let’s make gas look good,” said Gloria as she approached the leaves.
Gloria moved the two leaves out of the way, and here, they saw where the music was coming from: a party consisting of lemurs of all different kinds.  “Boy,” said Denko, “what a big, big, group.”
“Wow,” said Marty.
“It’s not people,” said Gloria, “it’s animals.”
“California animals,” added Melman, “dude.”
“This is like a Puffy party,” said Chicky.
The music stopped and all of the lemurs turned to a tree branch overhead.  Here, they saw their ruler, a ring-tailed lemur with a leaf crown.  He started singing on the branch before jumping off and joining his fellow lemurs in the fun.
Ring-tail: I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT
I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT
YA LIKE TO…
Lemurs: MOVE IT!
Ring-tail: I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT
I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT
I LIKE TO MOVE IT, MOVE IT
YA LIKE TO…
Lemurs: MOVE IT!
Ring-tail: I like to move it, move it
You like to move it, move it
She like to move it, move it
He like to…
Lemurs: MOVE IT!
The lemurs threw the ring-tailed lemur on their stage, where he made an announcement while the party went on.  “All girls all over the world: Original King Julien ‘pon your case, man,” he said, “I’d love how all the girls that love to move their body.  When ya move your body, ya do move it nice and sweet and sassy.  Alright?”
“What kind of zoo is this,” asked Yusi.
“I just saw twenty six great health code violations,” said Melman as he watched the lemurs dance.
“I’m lovin’ San Diego,” said Marty who was liking the music, “this place is off the chizain.”
“Twenty-seven,” added Melman.
The lemurs, oblivious to their watchers, continued their party.  King Julien danced with some of his fellow lemurs as the dance number continued.
Julien: Physically fit, physically fit
Physically, physically, physically fit
Physically fit…
Marty, Chicky and Icky, captivated by the fun and music, started dancing a little.  “We should’ve brought chips and dip,” said Marty as he danced.
Gloria looked behind her and noticed Alex missing.  “Wait…where’s Alex,” she asked as she pulled the three back behind the leaves, “what happened to him?  He was right behind us.  Wasn’t he right behind us?”
“I don’t know where he’s at, but he’s missing one heck of a party,” said Marty.
“Our friend Pinkie Pie would love something like this,” said Icky.
“Yeah, she would,” said Riley, “but Gloria’s right.  Where is Alex?”
Suddenly, the music and dancing stopped when one of the lemurs screamed out, “THE FOSSA!”
The group turned back to the leaves and was confused.  Why did the party suddenly turn from fun to frightening?  “THE FOSSA,” cried the lemur again, “THE FOSSA ARE ATTACKING!  RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”
On the party grounds the lemurs scattered in fear as another group of animals barged in on the scene: the fossa, a species of weasel-like predatory animals.  The lemurs scattered as the fossa moved in, singling out their prey: a small, light brown and beige colored mouse lemur.  The little lemur crouched in fear as the fossa examined him, thinking he would be a perfect meal.  “Fossa hungry,” one of them said.
“Fossa eat,” said another.
As the fossa prepared their meal, Alex appeared on the scene, brushing as much of the spider web off him as possible.  “I hate spider webs,” he commented before saying sarcastically to the others, “yeah thanks a lot guys.  Thanks for waiting up.  Really appreciate it.”
Alex moved the leaves aside, trying to find the music from before.  He noticed the fossa preparing to eat the mouse lemur.  Oblivious to the danger, Alex spoke up.  “Hey, hi, we just got in from New York, and we’re looking for a supervisor, because we’ve been sitting on that beach back there for…hours…and nobody’s even bothered to show up.”
The fossa looked at Alex with confusion.  Although confused too, the mouse lemur made a dash to get away, where the other lemurs were hiding.  “I don’t know how things are, uh…yeah I don’t know how things normally run around here…” said Alex.
But as Alex talked, the others noticed a huge spider crawling along his back.  They winced in shock at the size of the arachnid as Gloria picked up a stick, in preparation of whacking it.  “…but obviously there’s been some major screw-up, which is cool, so if you could just point us to the administrative offices, we’ll just, uh…” said Alex before noticing the spider on his back.
“Well howdy do.”
Surprised and frightened, Alex let out a huge scream.  The fossa gasped upon seeing the big teeth that Alex showed as he screamed.  Terrified, the fossa dropped their things and fled the scene.  “SPIDER!  SPIDER!  SPIDER ON MY BACK,” cried Alex as the fossa left.
From the undergrowth, the lemurs watched.  Julien watched the fossa run as the mouse lemur joined him and his aye-aye assistant.  “Maurice,” Julien said to the aye-aye, “did you see that?”
“He scared the fossa away,” said Maurice before turning his attention back to the New Yorkers and gang with the other lemurs.
“GET IT OFF!  OOH!  AAH!  NAAAA…” screamed Alex before getting assaulted by Gloria’s stick.
“Come on Gloria, get it,” said Melman as he, Marty and the others watched.
“Come on, whack that thing,” said Tiffany.
“GET IT, GET IT, GET IT,” said the spider, who was actually on the ground.
“That’s it, smack it,” said Elycia, who, like everyone else, thought the spider was still on Alex.
“Get it, Gloria, get it,” cheered Chicky.
“Whip it, whip it good,” said Riley.
“Where’d it go,” asked Kristie frantically as she flew overhead, “where’d it go?”
In the flora, the lemurs watched the action quietly.  “King Julien,” said Mort, the mouse lemur nervously, “what are they?  WHAT ARE THEY?”
“They are…aliens,” concluded Julien, “savage…aliens…from the savage future.”
“They’ve come to kill us,” said Maurice, “and take our women, and our precious metals.”
In his distress, Mort collapsed onto the ground, whining.  “Get up Mort,” said Julien, “do not be near the king’s feet, ok?”
Seeing that their chatter could attract the New Yorkers and gang, Julien shushed his fellow lemurs.  “We’re hiding.  Be quiet everyone, including me,” said Julien, “shh, who’s making that noise?  Oh, it’s me again.”
“There it is!  Get it,” said Picky.
“Come on Gloria, get ‘em,” said Elycia.
“Stop it,” said Alex before grabbing Gloria’s stick, “enough!   Enough with the stick.”
“I think she got it,” said Melman, “I think she got it.”
“Is it still on me,” said Alex as his friends helped him up, “ooh I hate spiders.”
“It’s ok, it’s gone,” said Gloria.
“That’s a relief,” said Kristie as she landed on Tiffany’s back, “that was a pretty big spider.  Thank goodness it wasn’t a snake.”
“Yeah, otherwise, you’d freak out,” said Blicky.
“Blicky, don’t remind her about it,” said Tiffany, “you know how sensitive Kristie is when it comes to that stuff.”
“And I don’t like spiders man,” added Chicky, “so cut it out.”
In the undergrowth, the lemurs continued observing their visitors.  “They are savages,” said Mort dramatically before grabbing Julien’s leg, “tonight we die.”
“The feet, I told you, ah, I told you, didn’t I,” said Julien as he shook Mort off his leg, before saying to Maurice “didn’t I tell him about the feet?”
“He did tell you about the feet,” Maurice gently scolded Mort.
Mort giggled nervously as Julien thought up something.  “Wait…I have a plan,” he said.
“Really,” said Maurice, who was skeptical.
“I have divided the cunning test to see whether these are savage killers,” said Julien before looking at Mort.
Before Mort could do anything, he was suddenly kicked out of the bush, leaving him exposed to the visitors.  Everyone looked and saw Mort sitting there.  Mort held onto his tail and shook nervously.  Everyone looked at the little lemur before Marty started coming forward.  “Hi there,” he said.
“Aw, isn’t he cute,” asked Faja.
But Alex stopped the zebra and cleared his throat.  “You let me handle it,” he whispered, “Alex handles it, Marty and gang do nothing.”
The gang glared at Alex, not liking that remark at all.  Alex ignored them and turned to Mort with a big smile.  He knelt down and met with the lemur’s face.  “Hi there,” he said.
But as he said that, he showed off his teeth, scaring Mort to point of breaking down in tears.  This made Alex feel really bad.  “Oh, oh sorry,” he said nervously.
“Oh Alex, what did you do,” asked Melman.
“No, no, no, stop, stop,” said Alex gently, trying to get Mort to stop crying while making friendly gestures, “it’s ok, it’s ok.  I’m just a silly, just a silly lion.”
But all that happened was Mort crying even louder.  “Oh geez,” exclaimed Alex.
The lemurs, still hiding in the undergrowth watched as the gang, along with Marty, Melman and Gloria approached Mort.  “You thought you could handle it, huh,” Claite asked Alex sarcastically.
While Marty elbowed Alex, Gloria approached the scared Mort.  “Aw, you poor little baby.  Did that big mean lion scare you,” asked Gloria gently.
“Mmm-hmm,” replied the saddened Mort.
“He did?  He’s a big, bad ol’ puddy tad, isn’t he,” said Gloria before gently picking up Mort, “come on, Mama’ll hold you.”
“Aw, look at you,” said Marty.
“It’s ok little guy,” said Riley, “you’re safe.”
“We won’t hurt you,” added Elycia, gently.
“They are so cute,” said Melman, “from a reasonable distance.”
Gloria started tickling Mort like he was a baby while everyone watched and commented.  “Aren’t you the sweetest little thing,” said Gloria, “I just wanna dunk him in my coffee.”
“Oh, aren’t you just precious,” said Tiffany, finding Mort adorable.
In the bushes, the lemurs were still watching the activity.  “They are just a bunch of pansies,” commented Julien.
“I don’t know,” said an unsure Maurice, “there’s something about that one with the crazy hairdo that…I find suspicious.”
“Nonsense Maurice,” replied Julien, dismissing his caution, before turning to the other lemurs, “come on everybody.  Let’s go meet the pansies.”
The lemurs erupted with applause and got out of hiding.  Alex, the gang and the others looked and saw the huge numbers of lemurs approaching them.  Surprised, they stood together as the lemurs surrounded them.  Some even observed them from branches.  A loud horn sounded off, silencing the lemurs.  It was coming from Maurice, who was blowing a conch shell.  “Presenting Your Royal Highness, our illustrious King Julien XIII, self-proclaimed lord of the lemurs, etc., etc. hooray everybody,” announced Maurice dryly and quickly.
The lemurs burst into applause as the lemurs revealed Julien to the visitors.  Julien held two fans, like he was a show-off, before tossing them away and kissing to the crowds.  The gang was confused by his attitude.  “He’s got style,” commented Marty. 
Julien greeted his fellow lemurs as some of them stood on each other’s heads and helped Julien up into the air.  Some of the lemurs did the same thing to Maurice.  “What is he like,” asked Alex, “king of the guinea pigs?”
“I think it’s a squirrel,” commented Melman.
“Welcome…giant pansies,” said Julien, “please feel free to bask in my glow.”
“Definitely a squirrel,” commented Alex.
“Yep, squirrel,” replied Melman.
“We thank you with enormous gratitude for chasing away the fossa,” said Julien.
“The…fossa,” asked Dicky.
“The fossa,” said Julien, “they’re always annoying us by trespassing, interrupting our parties and ripping our limbs off.”
“Yes, sounds good,” said Alex, wanting to find help to get off the island, “look, we’re just, uh, we’re just trying to find out where the people are, so…”
“Oh, my,” said Maurice, who was looking at Alex’s teeth, “what big teeth you have.  Man.”
But all Maurice got in response was a slap to the head from Julien.  “Shame on you Maurice,” he scolded, “can you not see that you just insulted the freak?”
“Wait a minute,” said Riley who was looking at Julien, “that black and white tail, that dark brown-gray fur, those rings around his eyes…guys, that’s no squirrel.  That’s a ring-tailed lemur.”
“A ring-tailed lemur,” asked Faja.
“That’s right Faja,” said Riley, “they’re a special type of primate with black and white coloring on their tails.”
“My, well thank you for the compliment.  I always had a thing with these here tail of mine,” said Julien, “but you must tell me…who the heck are you?”
“I’m Alex…the Alex, and this is Gloria, Marty and Melman,” said Alex, introducing himself to the lemurs.
“I’m Riley,” said Riley, “these guys are my teammates: Claite, Picky, Blicky, Icky, Julia, Tiffany, Elycia, Fojo, Faja, Gina, Ostron and Jicky.  The mammals is a close friend of ours: Toby and Denko.”
“Hi there fellas,” greeted Toby.
“And just where are you giants from,” asked Maurice, “hmm?”
“We’re from New York,” said Alex, “and, uh, we…”
Julien gestured for them to be quiet.  He swiftly turned to the lemurs and shouted out, “ALL HAIL THE NEW YORK GIANTS!”
“NEW YORK GIANTS,” the lemurs cheered.
This comment confused the New Yorkers, but left Claite, Picky, Blicky, Icky, Tiffany and Elycia laughing.  “New York Giants,” laughed Icky, “now that’s funny.”
“Um, what is funny,” asked Kristie.
“They think we’re the football team that plays in those games we watch,” said Elycia.
“Personally, I don’t watch football all that much,” said Riley, “but that name fits us, since we came from New York.”
Kind of irritated, Alex gathered his friends and the gang for a huddle.  “What’re they doing, some sort of inbreeding program,” asked Alex, “well I say we just gotta ask these bozos where the people are.”
“Excuse me,” said Julien, who was underneath Alex’s legs, “we bozos have people of course.”
Alex was jumped by Julien’s presence underneath his legs.  “Hey, the bozos have the people,” said Melman happily.
“Oh, wow…great…good…phew,” said Alex nervously.
“Where are they,” asked Fojo, “I don’t see any.”
“They’re up there,” answered Julien as he pointed towards a direction.
Everyone looked, but to their horror, it wasn’t an actual, live person.  Instead, it was a skeleton with pilot armor.  This caused everyone to gasp in shock.  Riley, Elycia, Picky and Yusi covered Fojo, Faja, Gina and Ostron’s eyes while everyone else looked in complete horror.  “Don’t you love the people,” asked Julien, “not a lively bunch though.”
“Oh…my…” said Blicky, disgusted.
“Wow,” said Alex, trying to remain calm, “do you have any live people?”
“Eh…no…uh, only dead ones,” said Julien.
“I mean, if we had a lot of live people here, it wouldn’t be called the wild,” said Maurice, “would it.”
This surprised everyone.  “The wild,” asked Marty, surprised.
“Whohohoho, hold up there a second, Fuzz Bucket,” said Alex, “you mean like, uh, ‘live in a mud hut, wipe yourself with a leaf’…type…wild?”
“Who wipes,” laughed Julien.
“Oy vey,” commented Gloria.
“OY VEY,” cheered Julien.
“Oy vey everybody,” said Maurice.
“OY VEY,” the lemurs cheered.
Riley thought about it and said, “you know guys, what they said makes sense.  We haven’t seen any humans, there aren’t any streets, sidewalks or fences, and the locals are animals.  We must be in the wild.”
“Well what do ya know,” commented Gina, “we are in the wild.  Now ain’t that something?”
“Could you excuse me, for a moment,” Alex asked the lemurs quietly.
Overcome with distress and shock that they were indeed stuck in the wild, Alex fled the jungle as fast as he could, muttering and murmuring to himself.  He reached the beach as the sun began setting, and ran to the ocean, but was pursued by Gloria.  “GET ME OUTTA HERE!  WE GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE,” cried Alex.
“ALEX,” shouted Gloria.
“HELP,” cried Alex before jumping into the water.
But Alex didn’t get far.  Gloria had grabbed onto him and pulled him back.  “WHAT…ARE YOU…DOING,” asked Gloria as he held onto the frantic lion.
“I’m swimming back to New York,” said Alex as he tried getting out of the hippo’s grip, “I know my chances are slim, but I have to try.”
“You can’t swim,” said Gloria as she tightened her grip.
“I said my chances are slim…”
But while Alex was panicky, Marty was excited and he danced around, happy to be finally fulfilling his dream of being free.  As for Melman, he had a pile of leaves surrounding his head.  He freaked out about it, not used to having leaves all around his face.  “AH, NATURE,” he cried as he ran around, “IT’S ALL OVER ME!  GET IT OFF!  I CAN’T SEE!  I CAN’T SEE!”
The gang having run down to the beach as well, saw Melman’s problem.  Tiffany stepped hard on a vine attached to Melman’s flora infested head, and all the leaves came flying off.  “I can see,” commented Melman before freaking out again and diving his head into the sand in fear, like an ostrich.
“Guys, calm down,” said Tiffany, “like Riley said, if we stay together, we’ll be ok.”
“Look, there’s obviously been some sort of mistake,” said Gloria, who was unintentionally choking Alex, “I’m sure the people didn’t dump us here on purpose.  As soon as they realize what happened, they’ll come looking for us, right?”
“Yeah…right,” said Melman, feeling a little better.
“I hope you’re right,” said Jicky, “‘cause we can’t be stuck here forever, especially with those…lemurs.”
“Whoa now, my ol’ pals, just take a load off and relax,” commented Denko, “I’m sure the people’ll find you and bring you back to your ol’ roots in no time.  Till then, go with the flow.”
Everyone looked out at the wide ocean ahead while Marty kept dancing, having ignored everyone else.  “You know something?  I bet they’re already on their way,” said Gloria as she let go of Alex, allowing him to breath.
Unfortunately for Gloria, this wasn’t the case.  The boat, having reached 2,501 miles south of the island, had Antarctica in its sights.  In the control room, Skipper, proud that his team reached their destination easily, stood over a compass and said, “well boys…it’s gonna be ice cold sushi for breakfast.”
The penguins started high-fiving each other on a job well done.  The ship captain got another slap to the neck.  “Rico,” said Skipper.
Rico opened a bottle of champagne in celebration of the team’s success.
Hours have passed since everyone found out where they were in the wild.  The boat hadn’t shown up, nor did anything else that could rescue them.  Overcome by despair, Melman dug himself a hole on the beach and put himself in it while reading a eulogy with Alex and Gloria watching.  “Well since I’m doomed to die on this forsaken island, I, Melman Mankiewicz, being a sound mind and unsound body, have divided my estate equally among the three of you,” he read before seeing a wave wash away half of his eulogy written in the sand, “oh…sorry Alex.”
Marty and the gang came by and saw what was going on.  “Hey, a latrine,” said Marty, “nice work Melman.  Outdoor plumbing.”
“No, it’s not a latrine,” said a distressed Alex, “it’s a grave.  You sent Melman to his grave.  Are you happy?”
“Grave,” asked Kristie, “why would this suddenly happen to Melman?”
“Are you guys still upset about being separated from the zoo,” asked Ostron.
“Aw, come on, this isn’t the end,” said Marty, “this isn’t the end.  This is a whole new beginning.  This could be the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,” replied Alex, “this is not the best thing that’s ever happened to us.”
“Yeah, you abused the power of the birthday wish and brought this bad luck on all of us.  Why’d you tell us your wish?  You’re not supposed to do that,” said Melman.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on a second,” said Blicky, “in case you’ve forgotten, Marty didn’t want to tell you.”
“Yeah, he’s right,” said Marty while Alex took a tree and headed towards the ocean, “you guys made me tell you.”
“Oh, ok,” replied an irritated Melman.
“Besides, this ain’t bad luck,” said Denko, “you’ve got each other, as does the gang.”
“Denko’s right,” said Marty as Alex drew a line in the sand with the tree, separating Marty and the gang from him, Gloria and Melman, “this is good luck.  Look around, there’s no fences, no schedules, this place is beautiful.  Baby, we were born…”
“Ok, ok, I’ve had enough of this,” said an annoyed Alex as he tossed the tree aside, “this is your side of the island, and this is our side of the island.”
“Our side,” asked Dicky, “why can’t we…”
“Because you’re still to blame for our problem along with Marty,” interrupted Alex, “that is the bad side where you can perform your travelling duties, and where Marty can prance and skip around like a magical pixie horse, and do whatever the heck he wants to do all day long.  This is the good side of the island for those who love New York and care about going home.”
“Come on,” said Marty as he tried stepping onto the other side.
But Alex stopped Marty from coming any further.  “No, no, back, back, no, no, no, back…”
“You know what?  This isn’t good,” said Gloria, not liking Alex’s behavior.
Seeing that Alex was still acting rude, the gang got annoyed.  “You know, we care about going home too,” said Elycia, “and you can’t leave Marty on his own.  That’s against Riley’s idea.  So technically speaking…”
“You guys don’t count, ‘cause you guys are also responsible for getting us on here, so you deserve to be stuck on the bad side with your adventurer wannabe,” said Alex as he pointed towards Elycia.
Now very angry, Picky lunged forward and nearly chomped on Alex’s finger.  “For the last time, you immature, picky, intolerable brat…IT WASN’T OUR FAULT MARTY WAS OUT THERE,” he yelled.
“Picky’s right,” said Chicky, “Marty left that zoo by himself.  We had nothing to do with it.”
“You still inspired him to go out there though,” said Alex, “we weren’t the ones who inspired him to go out and explore this disaster.”
“Ok, you know what?  That does it,” said Riley, having had enough, “you wanna separate the group and have things your way?  FINE!  You want New York, you’ll get New York, but you won’t get it with that attitude of yours, you annoying big fur ball of a king.”
“Yeah,” added Picky as he and the rest of the team headed off, away from the line, “have it your way Mr. King of Pathetic City.”
Alex looked at the gang, offended by that comment.  But before he could say anything, Picky tossed a seashell at Alex’s face with his tail.  Before he could retaliate, Marty, also having had it with Alex’s attitude, turned around as well.  “Ok.  You all have your side, and we’ll have ours,” said Marty as he proudly walked off, “and if you need me, I’ll be over here, on the FUN side of the island having a good ol’ time with my new friends.”
“That’s not the fun side,” said Alex before shouting out, “THIS IS THE FUN SIDE!  THIS IS THE FUN SIDE WHERE WE’RE GONNA HAVE A GREAT TIME SURVIVING UNTIL WE GO HOME!  WHOO!  I LOVE THIS SIDE, THIS SIDE’S THE BEST!  THAT SIDE STINKS!  YOU’RE ON THE JERSEY SIDE OF THIS CESSPOOL!”
“WILMA!”
“Well now what do we do,” asked Melman, not as angry.
“Don’t worry Melman, I have a plan to get us rescued,” said Alex.
Back with the gang, they headed further down the beach, still angry with Alex.  “He’s wrong,” growled Picky, “we weren’t responsible.”   
“What’s he trying to prove anyway,” asked an equally annoyed Elycia, “he’s got no one to blame but himself.”
“I’d choose Simba over that New York fanatic any day,” said Riley.
“What about Gloria and Melman,” asked Julia, “don’t we have to blame them too?”
“Um…sort of since when they showed up with Alex at Grand Central, the cops arrived and got us in trouble,” said Riley, “but they weren’t acting rude, and were actually happy to reunite with Marty.”
“True, but Alex didn’t have to ostracize us,” said Yusi, who was very tense.
“That is a drag indeed,” said Toby, “but how about we concentrate on building us some shelter.  Y’all look like you could use a break from this here stress.”
“Well, it is getting dark,” said Dicky. 
“Yes, yes, yes,” said Ostron, “and I wouldn’t be surprised if it got cold too.”
“Alright then,” said Riley, “let’s build some shelter.” 
“And show that annoying feline back there what we’re capable of,” added Picky.
Under the night sky, Alex had just finished making a wooden statue after hours of work.  “I can’t wait to see the look on Marty’s face when he sees this,” he said as he smirked at the zebra.
Marty and the gang were too busy to noticed Alex.  They were putting together a pile of leaves on the beach.  Alex, thinking that Marty was struggling, just simply shrugged off Marty’s problem.  “Oh just look at him,” said Alex, “he’s helpless without us.”
But Marty looked at Alex with another thought in mind.  “Do it buddy,” said Picky.
Marty snapped off a vine and contraption was set off.  On top of an overhead tree was a pulley system that had vines connecting a giant rock and the pile of trees.  The rock went down, and the leaves went up, revealing the leaves as a roof for the shelter.  Marty and Picky smirked at Alex, leaving the lion annoyed with their progress.  “Shut up Spalding.”
Nearby, Melman, still in his hole, was busy trying to make fire with two pieces of wood.  Unfortunately, this wasn’t working out well and he was getting tired.  As for Gloria, she was standing on the beach, underneath Alex, posing like the statue of liberty in hopes of attracting a boat or other means of rescue off in the distance.  “I’ve been standing here for hours man,” she said, “how long do I have to pose like this?” 
Alex, seeing that he finished his statue, turned to Gloria and said, “She is…finito.”
Gloria turned around and saw the huge statue that Alex was putting together.  It was a wooden representation of the statue of liberty.  This amazed Gloria while Alex said, “I defy any rescue boat within a million miles to miss this baby.  When the moment is right, we will ignite the beacon of liberty and be rescued from this awful nightmare.  What do you think?  Pretty cool huh?”
Alex turned to Melman, who still wasn’t making any progress in creating fire.  “How’s the liberty fire going Melman,” he asked.
“Great,” replied Melman before muttering, “idiot.”
“I heard that.”
“Why can’t we just borrow some of Marty and the gang’s fire,” asked Melman.
Alex glared at Marty’s group, seeing that they were making fire and improving on their shelter with little problem.  “That’s wild fire,” said Alex, “we’re not using wild fire on Lady Liberty.  Now rub Melman.”
But Melman, in his frustration, stopped rubbing and ranted, “I’ve been doing, I can’t.  I can’t, I can’t do it, I ju, I can’t…DO IT!”
Melman slammed the two pieces of wood onto the sand, but as he did, the two pieces of wood caught fire.  Upon seeing the fire, Melman became amazed.  He had finally created fire.  “F…fire,” he said.
Alex and Gloria smiled upon seeing the giraffe finally show his fire.  “Fire…FIRE,” Melman said with glory, “hahahahahahahahahaha…”
But upon seeing the wood still attached to his hooves, he started panicking, since he was close to getting burned.  “Ah…oh my…AH, OOH, FIRE,” he exclaimed as he panicked.
“NOT YET, NO, NO,” shouted Alex, trying to calm Melman down.
“FIRE!”
“MELMAN, HOLD STILL!”
But Alex’s attempts were futile.  Melman, in his fright, accidentally rubbed the fire against the Lady Liberty statue.  Alex was now stuck on the liberty torch and he panicked upon seeing the statue get engulfed in flames.  “JUMP!  ALEX JUMP,” cried Gloria as Alex jumped off, “DON’T WORRY, CATS ALWAYS LAND ON THEIR…”
Before Gloria could finish, Alex hit the ground and landed on his belly, face down into the sand.  “…face,” asked Gloria, “man, what kind of cat are you?”
Melman tripped and his two wooden pieces dug into the sand.  The fire extinguished and he calmed down.  But the damage was already done.  The fire had burned the statue to a crisp.  Some of the wood broke off, causing the statue to shrink in height.  This act caused Alex to break down in anger.  “YOU MANIAC!  YOU BURNED IT UP,” he shouted, “DARN YOU!  DARN YOU ALL TO HECK!”
“Can we go to the fun side now,” asked Melman after looking at Marty and the gang’s progress with their shelter.
Meanwhile, back in the jungle the lemurs were starting to gather around in their meet up location: an old, crashed plane in the trees.  As the hundreds of lemurs chatted amongst each other, Maurice tried getting them to quiet down.  “Everybody calm down, come on.  Into your chairs!  Everybody, calm down!  Let go of his tail.  Separate those two would you please?  You over here and you over there,” said Maurice, getting irritated before pressing the loud seatbelt button of the plane a couple times to get their attention, “everyone, sshh, calm down people, ok?”
The lemurs finally settled down, allowing Maurice to speak.  “Now, presenting your royal highness, the illustrious blah, blah, blah, you know, etc., etc…hooray, let’s go,” he said as King Julien appeared before the crowd.
“Now everybody,” said Julien, “we all have great curiosity about our guests, the New York Giants.”
One of the lemurs raised his hand.  “Yes Willie,” said Julien.
“I like them.”
“I like them, I liked them first,” said Mort excitedly in the crowd, “before I even met them I liked them…”
“Yes, yes…yes,” said an annoyed Julien.
“…I liked them right away.  You hate them compared to how much I like them…”
“OH SHUT UP, YOU’RE SO ANNOYING,” shouted Julien.
Mort stopped, but quietly giggled.  With Mort quiet again, Julien continued his speech.  “Now…for as long as we can remember, we have been attacked…and eaten…by the dreaded fossa.”
“THE FOSSA,” the lemurs suddenly exclaimed in fear.
This caused a sudden uproar of screaming and fright.  Some lemurs hid underneath the seats, while others burst out of the plane.  “THE FOSSA ARE ATTACKING!”
“IT’S A COOKBOOK!  IT’S A COOKBOOK!”
This sudden panicking irritated Julien and Maurice.  “Please,” Julien said, trying to calm them down, before turning to Maurice, “Maurice?”
Maurice rapidly pressed the seatbelt button again.  “QUIET,” he shouted.
The lemurs settled down.  “Come on y’all, they’re not attacking us this very instant,” said Maurice.
The lemurs sighed with relief.  With them under control once again, Julien continued his speech.  “So…my genius plan…is this: we will make the New York Giants…our friends…and keep them close.  Then…with Mr. Alex protecting us, we will be safe, and never have to worry about the dreaded fossa EVER AGAIN,” he finished happily.
The lemurs cheered, thinking the idea could work.  If Alex were to be their friend and protect them from trouble, then the fossa would no longer be a threat.  “I thought of that…I thought of that…Yes…me…I did.”
But Maurice had other thoughts.  “Hold on everybody, hold on, I’m just thinking now,” said Maurice, settling the lemurs down again, “I mean…does anyone wonder why the fossa were so scared of Mr. Alex?”
The lemurs thought about that.  “I mean, maybe we should be scared too.  What if Mr. Alex is even worse than the fossa,” asked Maurice.
The lemurs gasped, having never thought that before.  “I’m telling you, that dude just gives me the heebiedabajeebies,” said Maurice.
“Maurice, you did not raise your hand,” said Julien, having no concern about his comment, “therefore, your heinous comment will be stricken from the record.”
Julien gestured to Massakuro, a chameleon, and he licked Maurice’s comment off the scroll of lemur comments.  “Does anyone else have the heebie-jeebies?  No?  Good!  So shut up,” said Julien to Maurice, “when the New York Giants wake up…we will make sure that they wake up…in paraide.  NOW WHO WOULD LIKE A COOKIE!”
The lemurs erupted with applause once again.  With the lemurs approval, minus Maurice, the plan of making Alex and the others their friends was now set and in preparation of commencing.
Back on the beach, Alex, having run out of options, but refusing to quit, had set up some logs and arranged them into the word ‘HELP’ on the beach.  He sat on the beach a couple feet away, grumpily looking out onto the ocean.  This time, Gloria and Melman were nowhere to be seen.  Marty and Denko saw Alex sitting on the beach.  Although Alex treated him very badly, Marty couldn’t help but feel sorry for the lion.  Ignoring the line that was meant to separate him, he walked over to Alex.  “Yo Al…Melman and Gloria are over there having a good time,” he said, “there’s room on the fun side for one more.”
“No thanks,” replied Alex, still unhappy.
“Look…I’ve been thinking.  Maybe if you gave this place a chance, I don’t know…you might even enjoy yourself,” said Marty.
“Marty, I’m tired…I’m hungry…I just wanna go home,” said Alex.
“Could you just give it a chance,” asked Marty, “think about it.  It really isn’t the fun side without you.”
Marty turned around, about to walk back to his shelter, when Toby spoke up.  “I know you’re going through a tough time ol’ boy, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think of better things to do then sit around waiting for help to come.”
“But what else can I do,” asked Alex, “I’m stuck here…away from home…and I just…” he said before sighing.
“I understand,” said Toby, “but if there’s one thing I know…it’s that there’s always a rainbow on the other side of misfortunes.”
Alex glimpsed at Toby, thinking about his and Marty’s words.  Marty started walking back to the shelter, with Toby on his back.  While the two left, Alex’s frustration started fading away.  Marty and Toby’s words caused Alex to think about how he acted towards them, and the rest of the gang.  Even though he thought it was their fault for getting him stuck on the island, he couldn’t help but feel if he went too far in his constant complaining.  Behind him, the logs holding together to make the ‘P’ broke off each other and landed on the ground, creating an ‘L.’ Alex saw this and sighed.  But this was now the least of his problems.
Some time later that same evening, Alex finally got up and headed towards Marty’s shelter.  Outside, he could hear Marty, the gang, Melman and Gloria having a fun time together and laughing.  Alex lifted his paw, about to knock, but he hesitated.  Feeling bad for his attitude, but having no other place to go, Alex lifted his paw up again and knocked.  This caused everyone to stop their activity.  “Shh, shh,” whispered Claite, “it’s him.”
“Who is it,” asked Marty.
“It’s the pizza man.  Who the heck do you think it is,” asked Alex.
“Yes,” said Marty as he peaked from the door hole, “can I help you?”
“Can I come to the fun side,” asked Alex sadly.
Marty opened the chained door and asked, “I beg your pardon?”
“You know, I’ve been kind of a jerk Marty,” replied Alex, “but I’ve been thinking about what you said and…I’m sorry.”
Marty, seeing that Alex was finally giving in, quickly closed the door.  Alex heard a lot of loud noises and was confused.  But before he could do anything, the door opened again, this time all the way.  Marty greeted him with a smile and said, “welcome to Casa Del Wild.  Take a load off.”
Before Alex could walk in, Marty gestured towards his feet.  “Hey, hey, wipe your feet.”
Alex wiped his feet on the entrance rug.  After that, he entered the shelter.  “Alex,” said Gloria, upon noticing Alex’s entry.
“Well, well, well,” said Icky who was relaxed, “look who it is.”
“Mi Casa is su casa,” said Marty.
Alex walked further into the shelter, past Melman who was enjoying a coconut drink.  The shelter was like a city bar, with seats for visitors to relax on, and a fireplace for warmth.  Alex was amazed at all the work Marty and the gang put into this thing.  “Very impressive,” said Alex.
“It is impressive, is it not,” said Picky.
“Looks like you’re finally letting go of your frustration,” said Riley.
“Yeah…about that…Riley I…”
“It’s ok Al,” said Riley, “apology accepted.”
Alex looked at Riley, surprised that he was forgiving him so easily.  “Really?”
“Yeah,” said Riley, “I guess we were all stressed about being stuck on the island and your attitude…but after we set up shop, we started relaxing at the urging of Denko here.  I did so, and after a moment of meditating, I felt so much better after what we’ve been through.”
“There you go Riley,” said Denko, “no worries.”
“Wow,” commented Alex.
“Hey, have a drink,” said Marty as he offered Alex a drink, “it’s on the house.”
But the minute Alex took a sip, he immediately spat it out.  “This is sea water,” he said.
Marty spat out his water and said, “oh you don’t swallow it.  It’s just temporary till the plumbing’s done.”
“There should be a freshwater source around the island somewhere,” said Ostron, “we’ll go find it later.”
“Hey, y’all look hungry,” said Marty as he walked towards a lever, “how would you like some of nature’s goodness.”
Gloria spat out her seawater and asked, “you have food?”
“Fun side special comin’ up,” said Marty as he pulled the lever and revealed the food, “seaweed on a stick.”
Alex spat out his seawater again.  “Seaweed?”
“On a stick,” corrected Marty, “don’t love it till ya try it.”
Everyone took their sticks with seaweed.  Alex, being a carnivore, was completely unsure.  Melman on the other hand, roasted his seaweed above the fire and took a bite.  After chewing, he found it delicious.  “That’s unbelievable,” he said.
Gloria also found it yummy.  “So good.”
Tiffany ate hers and enjoyed the taste.  “Mmm-mmm,” said Tiffany, “that was really good, just like the vegetables I usually eat.”
“Well thanks,” said Marty, “it does kind of hit the spot, doesn’t it.”
But Alex, unable to eat the seaweed, started coughing to get the taste of his mouth.  “Well, maybe it could use a little lemon,” said Marty.
But Alex, not wanting to offend Marty again, tried acting happy.  “No it’s great.  It’s really great,” he said as he and the others tossed their sticks into the fireplace, “it doesn’t get any better than this.”
“Oh but it does,” said Marty as he walked to his levers again, “check this out.”
He pulled another lever and this time, the leaf roof extended out, revealing the night sky.  Here, everyone saw millions of bright stars in the sky.  “Wow,” said Gloria, “would you look at that.”
“It’s like…billions and billions of helicopters,” said Alex.
“It’s amazing,” said Riley quietly, “it’s like the Great Kings of the Past are once again watching over us.” 
“Wow, those stars are beautiful,” said Fojo.
“They are.  You know…I used to do this a lot with my little sister whenever we went camping,” said Tiffany before turning sad, “…I miss her.”
“I know how you feel Tiffany,” said Kristie, also feeling down, “I miss everyone else back home too: Grandma and Grandpa…Kendall…Elsa…”
“I hope we reunite with them soon,” said Faja.
Toby, seeing that his friends were once again feeling down, said, “I’m sure they miss you just as much.  But don’t fret dear friends.  We may be far from your loved ones…but I’m sure they’re safe together…as we are here.”
A shooting star flew across the sky.  “It’s a shooting star,” said Marty, “make a wish, quick.”
“Ooh, how about a thick, juicy steak,” suggested Alex.
“You know what Alex?  I promise you I’m gonna find you a steak tomorrow…if it kills me,” said Marty.
“Thanks Marty,” said Alex, happy to be with him again.
“Yeah don’t worry Alex,” said Riley, “we’ll help you too, no matter how hard it takes.  And don’t worry about trying to get home.  We’re gonna get through this together, and we’re not gonna give up.”
“Thanks Riley,” said Alex, “you know…you guys aren’t that bad, really.  You’re very helpful.”
“You bet we are Al,” said Jicky, “you bet we are.”
Melman yawned, feeling tired from the long day.  “It is getting late.  I guess I’m gonna…”
Melman instantly fell asleep as Gloria said, “I think I’m gonna hit the sack too.  Sweet dreams everyone.”
Everyone went to sleep, having went through a long day and ready to relax.  Despite being stranded, they were happy to be together again and take it nice and easy.  But to Alex slept, he saw the night sky above him, like when he was awake.  But instead of bright, beautiful stars, it was raining steaks.  The pieces of meat slowly descended to the ground.  Alex found himself in heaven.  His main source of food was falling from the sky.  He smiled as he waved his arms and legs around, like he was making a snow angel.  He caught one of the steaks in his paws and started licking it.  But as he did, he heard Marty’s voice echo.  “Alex.”
Alex suddenly woke up.  The steak dream was gone and he saw himself licking Marty’s skin.  Alex also saw Marty, Gloria, Melman and the gang looking at him with confused and slightly disturbed looks.  “What’re you doing,” asked Marty.
Unsure of how to answer, but quickly coming up with something, he retracted his tongue and started counting Marty’s stripes.  “Twenty seven, twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty,” he said, “hmm, thirty.  Thirty black and only twenty nine white.  Looks like your black with white stripes after all.  Dilemma solved, good night.”
Alex swiftly turned around and tried falling asleep.  He made some quiet snoring noises while everyone else looked at each other.  Why would Alex suddenly start licking Marty like that?  Unsure, but too tired to think it over, they too started falling asleep.  As they slept, they were unaware that they were being watched.  In a tree nearby, the lemurs observed the group snoozing away.  “You see Maurice,” said Julien, having observed the activity, “Mr. Alex was grooming his friend.  He is clearly a tender, loving thing.  How can you have the heebie jeebies with Mr. Alex.  Look at him.  He’s so cute…and plushy.”
“I don’t think he was grooming him Julien,” said a still cautious Maurice, “more like he was tastin’ him to me.”
“Suit yourself, no matter.  I don’t care,” said Julien, “soon we will put my excellent plan to action.  All we have to do…is wait until they are deep…in their sleep.”
The lemurs watched the group sleep.  It was all very quiet, with only the sound of crickets chirping filling the air.  After a couple seconds of waiting, Julien blurted out, “HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO TAKE?”
This woke everyone sleeping in the shelter.  They turned around, but saw the tree and not the lemurs.  The lemurs had hid themselves in the tree, while Julien and Maurice hid their faces with green fans.  Confused, but seeing nothing, the group shrugged off the sound and went back to sleep.
Meanwhile, far, far south of the island, was Antarctica.  Here, the boat had its anchor on the ground, and the penguins were standing around, examining their surroundings.  But all they saw was nothing but a fierce blizzard.  Kowalski shook, getting a chill from the cold air.  Skipper tapped his feet around, expecting something big to happen.  Rico scratched his bottom while everyone else looked out into the cold continent.  Nothing huge happened and Private turned to his fellow penguins to express his thoughts on Antarctica.  “Well this sucks!”
After a long night of sleep, Alex, with his eyes still closed, heard someone whispering to him.  “Wake up Mr. Alex.  Wake up Mr. Alex,” the voice said as Alex slowly opened his eyes, seeing a lemur, “rise and shining.”
But Alex closed his eyes again.  “Wakey-WAKING Mr. Alex,” King Julien said as he tried waking up Alex.
But Alex’s eyes dropped again.  “WAKE UP, ALEX,” shouted Julien.
Alex opened his eyes wide upon seeing Julien up near his face.  “You suck your thumb,” asked Julien.
Alex screamed upon seeing that he and the others were no longer on the beach, but were back in the jungle, surrounded by the lemurs.  The others woke up and were startled as well.  The lemurs cheered as Alex and the others looked around, frantic about where they were.  “WHERE ARE WE,” exclaimed Kristie.
“WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON,” asked Chicky.
“WHERE’S THE BEACH,” asked Dicky.
“Take it easy,” said Julien, trying to calm them down.
“WHO BUILT A FOREST,” asked Blicky.
Julien stood on two bamboo stilts and spoke to the group as they calmed down.  “Don’t be alarmed giant freaks,” he said, “while you were asleep, we simply took you to a little corner of heaven.  Welcome to Madagascar.”
“Mada-who-haa,” asked a confused Marty.
But while Alex looked around, he saw something astonishing.  He turned Marty’s head around while Gloria, Melman and the gang looked too.  “What,” asked an amazed Marty.
“No, not ‘who-haa,” said Julien, “‘ascar.’”
But the group was more focused on what they were looking at.  It was a view of the jungle and a lake.  It was a captivating sight, one that Marty and the others had never seen before.  The gang, though having seen beautiful views like that before, was still amazed.  “Look at that,” said an awed Elycia.
“Marty, it’s…” said Alex, trying to describe the view.
“It’s just like my mural back at the zoo,” said Marty.
“Oh no fella, that is the real deal right there,” said Gloria.
“Look at that,” said Julien as he looked at the view himself, “that’s not a bad view.”
“It’s an amazing view,” said Ari, “that’s what it is.”
“I mean, that’s the thing that you were…always…looking at but it’s actually there, I mean that’s the real…version of…,” Alex said to Marty.
“Hey,” said Marty, coming up with an idea, “how about once around the park.  Let’s get our blood pumping, get those lungs breathing fresh air.  WHO’S WITH ME?”
Julien raised his arms excitedly, though Marty was more focused on Alex.  “Nah, I don’t think I could…” Alex said before suddenly tapping Marty excitedly, “YOU’RE IT!”
Alex sprinted down the hill, running towards the lake.  “Hey, wanna play around,” asked Marty before chasing after the lion.
The two friends started chasing each other as they ran down the hill.  “Got you there.”
“Come here!”
“You’re it!”
“Hey, stop that!”
“Hey, you’re crazy!”
Everyone else watched happily as the two friends ran towards the lake.  Gloria, Melman and the gang were happy to see the two friends have fun together again.  “Now that’s really cute,” said Elycia, “those two friends having fun together.”
“It’s as if all their troubles mean nothing to them at the moment,” said Ostron.
“I told y’all things were gonna be A-OK sooner or later,” said Denko.
“You were right Denko,” said Riley, “thank you for giving us your optimism.”
“You thought that is a good thing, wait until you see what else my kingdom has in store,” said Julien.
“Oh boy, this is gonna be fun,” said Dicky.
Back with Alex and Marty, they kept running down the hill.  Alex however was getting tired.  “Ok Marty,” he said as he slowed down before eventually stopping, “I’m it.  I’m it.  I’m it.  You win.”
“Come on Alex,” said Marty as he ran around Alex, “get in the groove.”
“I haven’t eaten in two days,” said Alex as he got on his knees, “my blood sugar’s real low.  I just don’t have the energy.”
“I don’t think that’s your problem,” said Marty, “first of all, that’s not how you run in the wild.  Let’s go man, put some rubber to the road.”
Marty pushed Alex onto the ground.  “You just have let out that inner lion,” said Marty as he helped Alex stand on all four legs, before turning to his face, “now…who’s the cat?”
“Marty, I really don’t…”
“You are!  That’s who,” said Marty who then kicked Alex, getting him to run on his four legs, “come on, here we go!”
With Alex once again running, Marty started running after him.  “That’s it,” said Marty, “NOW LET’S BUILD UP SOME STEAM!”
“Alright,” said Alex who started getting the hang of running on all four legs.
“You the cat,” said Marty.
“Who’s the cat,” asked Alex.
“You the cat!”
“Who’s the cat?”
“You the cat!”
“Who’s the cat?”
“You the cat!”
“Who’s the cat?”
“You the cat!”
“Who’s the cat?”
“WAHOO,” cheered Marty as he sprinted forward, ahead of Alex.
Alex kept asking the same question as he continued running.  Alex started getting more and more excited as he kept asking the question, each time being faster and faster.  He looked ahead and saw Marty running ahead of him.  Finally understanding what Marty was saying, Alex grew more and more hyper before suddenly shouting out, “I’M THE CAT,” as his pupils suddenly got smaller.
Alex suddenly started running faster and he managed to catch up to Marty.  He swiftly ran by Marty without him even knowing.  Marty turned around and saw that he was losing Alex.  But as he turned back to where he was running, he saw Alex standing there, paws open.  “SURPRISE,” he shouted.
Marty screamed as he tried stopping, but he crashed into Alex.  The two friends rolled across the grass hills, eventually stopping after a few seconds.  Alex quickly got himself up and shouted out, “WHOO!  You’re it!  You’re it!  Can’t shoot the cat.  Cat’s too quick!  WHOO!”
Alex helped his friend up before expressing more of his excitement.  “WHOO, HA, HOO, YEAH, HOO HA,” exclaimed Alex, “I FEEL LIKE A MILE-HIGH PASTRAMI ON RYE ON THE FLY FROM THE DELI IN THE SKY!  Rwar!  Let’s go wild!”
“Now you’re talking,” replied Marty, excited for more action.
Later in the day, the two friends swung on a vine in the jungle, bellowing like Tarzan.  They landed in the main party area, where the lemurs were having a fun time with their new friends.  “Man, I feel different,” he said happily before giving Marty a noogie, “NOOGIE, NOOGIE, NOOGIE!  NOOGIE, NOOGIE, NOOGIE!  WOW!  HOO!  HA!”
Nearby, Gloria was sitting in a spa tub while some lemurs treated her with some leaf fans.  “Ah Marty, Marty, Marty,” she said, relaxed, “like you said baby.  It’s…”
“Crack-a-lacking,” said Alex happily, “ain’t that right Melman.”
“Oh yeah, oh yeah,” said Melman, who was getting a neck massage, “I’m in heaven.”
The gang was also having a fun time.  “Now this is awesome,” said Claite, who was enjoying a hot tub with Riley, Blicky and Icky, “just what the doctor ordered.”
“Amen buddy,” said Blicky, “it’s so good to be in paradise.”
“Kind hospitality, a fun party and a sunny day,” said Riley, “what more could you want?”
As for the gang girls, the gang and Chicky, they were dancing with the lemurs to the music.  “I really like this music the lemurs are playing,” said Julia.
“It brings out the party spirit in me,” said Chicky, “just like Shrek and Fiona’s wedding.”
“And it looks like Alex is agreeing with you,” said Yusi who was observing Alex’s actions, “look at him go.”
“I never expected him to be so happy and hyper in an environment like this,” said Gina as she danced with her friends.
“You see Maurice,” said Julien as he danced with Maurice, “Alex is now our friend and the fossas are nowhere to be seen.  It could be said that my plan…is working in a very good working…kind of way.”
Alex hopped over the two lemurs before meeting up with Marty again.  He was standing near some fruit with Toby and Denko.  Toby and Denko was munching on the fruit like a hungry mammals.  “Alex, you gotta try some of this,” said Marty as he shoved a pineapple into Alex’s mouth.
Alex immediately spat it out and it landed in Julien’s arms.  “Munching on fruit always brings out the happiness in me,” said Denko.
“I feel good,” said Alex, “I feel like a king again.”
Julien tossed the pineapple to Maurice and looked at Alex, confused.  “King,” he asked.
“Yeah, you should see his act,” said Marty, “come on Alex.  Why don’t you show ‘em some of your act?”
“Oh, no, I really don’t think I could,” said Alex modestly before quickly saying, “ok!”
With that, everyone gathered together in a big crowd.  “Ladies and gentlemen, primates of all ages,” announced Marty, “the wild proudly presents, THE KING!”
“Alex…the lion,” said Alex quietly, just like before his performance in New York City.
“Eat that fellas,” Marty gestured to the music-playing lemurs.
While the lemurs played music, Alex stood on a rock overlooking the crowds.  Everyone cheered for their friend as he stood on the rock.  He did one of his show poses while some confetti sprayed into the air.  “ALEX, ALEX, ALEX, ALEX…” the gang cheered.
“THE KING IS IN THE HOUSE,” cheered Marty happily.
But Julien was unsure about this.  “See if he’s a king, then where’s his crown,” he asked, “I’ve got the crown.  Got the very nice one, and it’s here on my head.  Look at it.  Have I got it on?”
Nearby, a group of the fossa gathered on an overhead rock, confused about what Alex was doing.  Everyone, completely oblivious to the fossa’s presence, continued rooting for Alex as he did some poses.  “DO THE ROAR MAN!  DO THE ROAR,” encouraged Marty.
Alex got on all fours and let out a loud, powerful roar.  This caused everyone to gasp.  The fossa became terrified and fled.  While Maurice glared at Alex with suspicion, the gang expressed their thoughts.  “Wow,” said Dicky, “what a roar that was.”
“Yeah,” said Kristie, “pretty loud one too.”
“Wow,” said Marty, who was amazed but not scared, “I’ve never heard that one before.  YEAH!  GO WILD MAN!”
The lemurs cheered again as Alex panted while looking upon them.  “BRING OUT THE WAVE,” cheered Marty as he raised his hooves into the air.
Alex raised his paws into the air and slowly spun around, eyes on the lemurs.  They raised their hands into the air too.  But as Alex did his pose, he smelled something and looked down on the lemurs.  Suddenly, Alex saw them all turn into walking steaks.  Alex, as if he was losing his mind, showed off his lion claws while he licked his tongue and while his pupils shrunk again.  “He’s really showing off this time,” said Elycia.
“Well he does love to perform,” said Blicky, “GO ALEX!”
But as Riley cheered alongside his teammates, he started feeling something wrong upon seeing Alex show his claws and lick his tongue.  “Wait a minute,” he said, having a really bad feeling.
“Huh,” asked Picky, “what is it buddy?”
Before Riley could answer, everyone suddenly heard a loud, agonizing scream.  It was coming from Marty.  “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!”
Everyone gasped and stopped applauding upon seeing what was happening.  To their shock, they saw Alex back on the ground biting into Marty’s rear.  A deathly silence fell over the crowd as everyone looked at what Alex was doing.  The only sound was the sound of Mort clapping, but he stopped upon seeing his fellow lemurs stay quiet.  Marty looked behind him and saw Alex.  “Excuse me,” he said, irritated, “you’re biting my butt.”
Alex looked at Marty with his small pupils.  They grew big again after looking at Marty’s butt.  “No I’m not,” he said, oblivious to what he was doing.
“Yes you are.”
Alex, seeing that he really did bite his friend, swiftly let go and spat out what he had tasted.  “Alex, what did you do,” asked Gloria as she, Melman and the gang walked up to Marty.
“You just bit me on the butt,” complained Marty.
“No, I didn’t…did I?”
“You kinda did,” said Melman.
“He just bit me on the butt,” said Marty, “what the heck is wrong with you?”
Alex got very frantic upon hearing this.  He tried finding an answer, but he couldn’t think of one.  “Why’d you bite me,” asked Marty, expecting an explanation.
“Man,” said Maurice as he emerged from the crowd with Julien, “it’s because you are his dinner.”
“What,” asked Gina.
“Excuse me,” asked Gloria.
“That’s dumb,” said Melman.
“Yeah, I mean, how can Marty be Alex’s dinner,” asked Jicky, “those two are best buddies.”
“Just like another duo that I know and am proud to be friends with,” said Toby.
“Oh come, come Maurice, what is a simple bite on the buttocks among friends,” asked Julien, still trying to stay positive, “here, give me a nibble.”
But Maurice was not giving in this time.  “The party is over Julien,” he said, “your brilliant plan has failed.”
“Plan,” asked Picky, who got suspicious, “what plan?”
“What’s going on here,” asked Fojo, “what’re you talking about?”
“Your friend here is what we call a deluxe model hunting and eating machine,” said Maurice while Alex, feeling terrible, suddenly switched demeanor and tried catching a butterfly, before returning to normal, “and he eats steak…which is you.”
“Us,” asked Faja.
“That’s impossible,” said Yusi, “Alex would never turn against us.  We’re his friends.”
“Yeah, get outta here,” said Gloria.
But Riley had other thoughts.  “Guys…I’m afraid Maurice brings a good point,” said Riley, “Alex eats steak, which is fine since he’s a carnivore…but he hasn’t eaten in a few days.”
The gang gasped.  “Are you saying…he’s gonna…”
“He could if he doesn’t eat anything soon,” said Riley, answering Blicky’s question.
Seeing that it made sense, and there was no other way to defend himself, Julien reluctantly gave in to Maurice’s words.  “Okie dokie Maurice.  I admit it…the plan failed,” he said sadly, “ALL IS LOST!  We’re all doomed.  The fossas will come back and gobble us with their mouths,” he continued before turning dramatic, “because…we are all steak.”
“I’m steak,” said Mort, acting childlike, “me, me, me, me…”
“Mr. Alex cannot stay here.  He belongs with his own kind,” said Maurice as Alex’s vision suddenly went predator again, “…on the fossa side of the island.”
Alex say the lemurs turn into steaks once again.  He tried rubbing his eyes to make them go back to normal, but they didn’t turn back to normal.  “By the power vested in me by the law of the jungle,” announced Julien, “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah…be gone.”
In Alex’s eyes, the gang, Gloria, Melman and even Marty turned into steak.  “What, come on.  Do I look like a steak to you,” asked Marty.
“Yeah,” said Alex dreamily.
This made everyone gasp in fear.   “See, I told ya I don’t look like a…wait, what did you say,” asked Marty getting nervous.
“Oh yeah,” said Alex before getting on all four legs, claws out and snarling like a predator.
“Riley…I don’t like this,” said Elycia who started getting nervous.
“He’s going savage,” said Mort nervously.
“RUN FOR YOUR LIVES,” shouted Julien who fled.
The lemurs fled the scene as Alex, unable to control himself, roared loudly.  “GUYS, RETREAT,” ordered Riley as he and the gang fled.
“MARTY RUN,” said Gloria as she and Melman fled.
Seeing that Marty was after him, Marty became frantic and fled, trying to catch up with his friends.  His best friend Alex was now turning against him, intending on eating him.  But as they fled, they heard someone cry for help.  “HELP!”
It was Toby and Denko, who was stuck in the fleeing crowd of lemurs.  Upon hearing his voice, Riley became worried.  “TOBY! DENKO,” he replied as he prepared to turn around and run back.
But Alex started chasing after him and the others.  Not wanting Riley to end up as Alex’s victim, Gloria grabbed Riley and fled.  “GLORIA, GUY’S BACK THERE!”
“ALEX IS MORE FOCUSED ON US,” exclaimed Gloria, “COME ON!”
Alex roared as he chased after the group.  “GUYS WILL FIND US,” exclaimed a frantic Tiffany, “RUN!”
Alex nearly pounced on Tiffany, but she was able to dodge his attack, barely.  But before Alex could attack again, he saw Marty run ahead.  Now concentrating on him, Alex sprinted after the terrified zebra.  But Alex was faster and he got closer and closer to the zebra.  He leaped into the air and was about to grab onto Marty’s back with his sharp claws, when suddenly, a mango landed on his head, causing him to lose focus and topple onto the ground.  The mango came from a nearby tree, where Julien and Maurice were watching.  “A bullseye,” said Julien, “excellent shot Maurice.”
“Thank you,” replied Maurice, liking that comment.
As for Alex, he got up, but his regular vision came back.  He saw the Marty turn back from a steak into a zebra.  Seeing what he had done, Alex became worried.  “Marty,” he asked before realizing that he nearly killed his best friend, “I’m so sorry Marty.”
Alex got to his feet and he watched Marty flee out of view.  Seeing his best friend run made Alex feel terrible, much more terrible than when he treated him badly for leaving the zoo.  “What is wrong with me,” he asked as he grasped his head with his clawed hands, only to feel pain from his own claws, “oowwww!”
Alex looked at his own claws and understood that Maurice was right about him: he was a predatory animal that thought Marty and the others were steak.  Seeing that he could’ve killed them so easily, and fearing he can never be with them again, Alex started despairing.  “Oh no…what have I done?  It’s true…I’m a monster…I…I gotta get outta here,” he said before fleeing in the opposite direction, away from his friends.
After running through the jungle for a while, Marty, Gloria, Melman and the gang stopped and caught their breath.  They were relieved that they could stop and recover from the terrifying run, but they were distressed that Alex did all that predatory activity.  The gang was also distressed that they lost Denko in the chaos.  
As for Alex, he was overcome with fear and guilt that he nearly killed his friends with his predatory behavior.  He travelled through the jungle, alone to prevent attacking his friends, accidentally getting his claws stuck on two thick leaves during the walk.  He shook his paws around, trying to get them off as he walked through the jungle, alone.  He managed to shake one off, but the other was still stuck on his right paw.  As he tried shaking that one off, he grabbed onto a tree, clawing down the bark.  Although he got the leaf off his right paw, his left paw was stuck to the tree.  He pulled with all his might to get it loose until the claw got off.  But this sent Alex flying down a grassy hill.  This hill consisted of jagged rocks that were painful for Alex’s back, pink flowers that were actually soft and smooth, and cacti that hurt Alex and attached to his skin.  After a crazy tumble down the hill, Alex tried looking where he was, only to accidentally fall off a cliff and land in a river.  This river was leading to predator territory on the island.  After going over a waterfall and getting a cactus off his back, he resumed his lonesome walk.  Some fossa noticed him enter their territory but remained hidden, not wanting to get in his way.  
As for the others, they slowly and sadly walked through the jungle.  Everyone was deeply saddened to have lost Alex and Denko.  They slowly trudged through the jungle, past some flowers.  They watched a hummingbird fly towards one of them, only to get swallowed up by one of the flowers.  Everyone gasped upon seeing this and fled the area.  The flower burped out feathers, making Melman and Blicky extremely uncomfortable and scared.  As for Alex, he found an area to isolate himself from others.  Using a sharp stone, he carved some sticks like he was making a spear.  Further into the journey, Marty’s group came across a mouse.  But just as quickly as it appeared, a red snake appeared from the undergrowth and attacked it, coiling around it and disappearing into the flora.  This frightened everyone, especially Julia who swiftly clung onto Tiffany.  As they kept going, they spotted another mouse, but this one also got attacked, this time by an eagle.  This horrified everyone again.  Blicky, having seen the awful fates of the little animals, started panting while on the brink of passing out.  As this happened, everyone spotted a little duck.  Marty and Icky saw him and became worried of any of the predators around.  Icky frantically gestured towards a nearby pond as Marty grabbed the duck’s bill and carried the duck towards said pond.  Everyone stopped at the water and Marty gently put the duck into the water.  Everyone sighed with relief and smiled at the little duck.  But unfortunately, this moment quickly shattered as a crocodile burst from the water and swallowed the duck.  Everyone was left terrified again.  This time, Blicky passed out in complete disgust.  Everyone else looked at the water, seeing how there were predators everywhere, and each one reminded them of Alex and how he went predator against them.  They were also reminded of Toby and Denko and were worried about him and if he could survive on his own in the dangerous jungle.  As for Alex, he had finished making an area for him.  He had barricaded himself with the sharp sticks so that he wouldn’t be able to get out and harm his friends.  He sat on his own rock, alone, depressed and hungry.
As for the others, they continued their quiet walk through the jungle before coming across the same lake view they saw earlier.  But instead of marvel at the sight, they were reminded of Alex once again.  Marty, having seen enough predator activity and still saddened about losing his best friend was the one most upset.  He looked at the lake, horrified that they were trapped on the dangerous island, and that the one he ran towards the lake with had become an eating machine that almost killed him.  “What have I done,” he said, “this is a nightmare.  It’s all my fault.  Now because of me, we’ve lost Alex.”
“Marty…don’t be so rough on yourself,” said Ari, trying to reassure him, despite her sadness.
“Guys, think about it,” said Marty, “if I never left the zoo, we wouldn’t be here…you’d still be home…and we’d still have Alex with us.”
“Well, what, what, what’re we gonna do,” asked Melman.
Despite what they’ve been through, Gloria remained hopeful.  “We’re gonna find a way to help him,” she said, “that’s what we’re gonna do.” 
“But Gloria, he’s gone crazy and Toby and Denko’s gone too,” said Elycia, “what can we do to stop this?”
“She’s right,” said Faja, “I wish we never washed up here.”
“Come on guys,” said Gloria, trying to cheer them up, “you are the gang, and we’re New Yorkers, right?”
“Well yeah, but…” said Dicky.
“We’re tough,” continued Gloria.
“Yeah,” said Marty.
“We’re gritty.”
“Yeah!”
“We’re adaptable!”
“Yeah!”
“And we are not gonna lay down like a bunch of Melmans,” concluded Gloria.
“No we’re not,” said Melman. 
“And if Toby can think positively through a dire problem, so can we, right,” asked Gloria.
Upon hearing the hippo’s words, Riley started feeling inspiration to regain spirit as well.  “You know what Gloria…you’re right,” he said, “that’s what Denko’s been doing ever since we got here.”
“Yeah, I mean, he sang us that song,” said Claite, also feeling confidence, “he persuaded us to relax on the beach, and he assured us that we would get through this adventure together and get home safely.”
“But guys, you saw what we witnessed throughout the jungle,” said Kristie, “including that…slithery…”
“I know sweetie, but Denko would want us to remain optimistic, would he?  And surely he can survive this jungle,” said Gloria, “like how he’s survived being captured a lot like Riley told us.”
“Exactly,” said Riley, “wherever Toby is, we’ll get him back, and until then, we are not gonna give up on either him or Alex.”
“We’re gonna stay strong like a boat going through a storm,” said Gina.
Suddenly, everyone heard a loud noise off in the distance.  “Gloria,” complained Melman, thinking it was her passing gas.
“That was not me, ok?  That was the boat,” said Gloria.
Suddenly, everyone became hopeful.  That sound was indeed the boat.  “THE BOAT,” exclaimed Gloria.
“The boat,” asked Marty.
“The boat,” asked Gina, surprised, “that was the boat?!”
Upon hearing this, Blicky regained consciousness and asked, “the boat?  It’s here?  Or am I dreaming?”
“No Blicky, it’s the boat,” said Riley, “it’s come back for us.”
“Come on guys, we gotta flag it down,” said Marty who ran towards the beach with the others.
They reached the beach and to their amazement, they saw the boat off in the distance.  “THERE IT IS,” exclaimed Marty.
“HEY, OVER HERE,” called Melman.
“OVER HERE,” cried Gloria.
“HELP!  HELP!  HELP,” cried Marty.
“HEY, OVER HERE,” cried Riley, “HELP US!”
“S.O.S,” shouted Chicky, “S.O.S!”
“TURN THIS WAY,” shouted Julia, “TURN THIS WAY!”
Melman lowered his neck and Gloria got on it.  “HELP ME UP!  HELP ME UP,” exclaimed Gloria.
Melman lifted his head into the air, trying help Gloria get a better signal.  “HELP!  HELP!  HELP,” cried Marty.
“OVER HERE,” shouted Gloria as she struggled to stay still on Melman’s head, “MELMAN!”
“Over here,” said Melman, struggling to keep Gloria in the air.
“OVER HERE,” shouted Marty as he held onto Melman’s neck.
“THIS WAY,” shouted Yusi, “HELP US!”
“TURN OVER HERE,” shouted Elycia.
“You have no idea how much this hurts,” said Melman as he struggled to keep his footing while holding up Gloria’s heavy bulk.
“OVER HERE,” shouted Gloria again.
“TURN AROUND BOAT,” shouted Picky, “TURN AROUND YOU BLASTED BOAT!”
Melman finally lost his footing and tripped.  Everyone fell into the sand, but to their excitement, they saw the boat turn towards the island.  “Look,” said Gloria as she helped Melman get up, “IT’S TURNING!  IT’S COMING BACK!  IT’S COMING BACK!”
“YEAH, THIS WAY!  THIS WAY,” cheered Melman.
“IT’S COMING BACK,” squealed Gloria, overly excited as she danced with the others.
“COME ON BABY,” cheered Melman, “WHOO!”
“YES, YES, YES,” cheered Icky, “praise Future Time Travel!  WE’RE SAVED!”
Marty, now seeing their chances of rescue were very strong now, turned to the jungle.  “You guys flag down that boat,” said Marty, “I’ll go get Alex.” 
Marty turned to rush into the jungle, but Gloria stopped him.  “Whoa,” she said as she stopped Marty, “hold on there.  You cannot go back there by yourself.”
“Ah come on, I know Alex,” said Marty, “when he hears we’re rescued, he’ll snap right out of it.”
“The people are coming,” said Melman, “they can help us.”
“Melman’s right,” said Picky, “the people will know what to do.”
“Exactly,” said Gloria, “now come on, we gotta flag down that boat.”
But as they turned back around, they saw the boat much closer than before.  In fact, the boat had reached the sandy shore and was starting to slow down.  The boat stopped right at Melman’s face before giving out a loud honk that shook the jungle.  As the noise subsided, an anchor landed on the nearby sand.  But to everyone’s surprise, it wasn’t any human that slid down onto the land.  Instead, it was the penguins, having gotten away from Antarctica and were looking for another place.  They landed on the sand and examined their surroundings.  “Now this is more like it,” said Skipper.
“Skipper,” asked a surprised Riley, “guys!”
“They were the ones controlling that boat,” asked Ostron.
“You,” asked Gloria as she approached the penguins, “oh man, where are the people?”
“We killed ‘em and ate their livers,” said Skipper.
This comment made everyone freeze in shock.  Blicky started passing out again in shock, but stopped upon hearing Skipper say, “got ya didn’t I.  Just kiddin’ doll, the people are fine.”
Skipper high fived Rico and said, “they’re on a slow lifeboat to China.”
“Don’t…ever…do that again,” said a dizzy Blicky, “my nerves can’t take anymore of what we’ve been through in that monster of a jungle.”
“With these penguins, you never know what to expect,” said Riley.
“Well, well, well,” said Skipper upon noticing Riley, “Riley, we once again meet.  Funny encountering you here on the same island.”
“Yes, yes it is Skipper,” said Riley, still shocked to see the penguins, “I’m assuming you were the ones responsible for the boat suddenly tipping us overboard?”
“They did say they wanted to go to Antarctica,” said Dicky.
“They nearly got us drowned and separated,” complained Kristie.
“Well from the looks of it, you all seem together now,” said Skipper before remembering the zoosters, “hey, I know you two.  Where’s that psychotic lion and our monochromatic friend?”
“Marty?  He’s right…” said Melman as he and the others tried looking for Marty, “where’d he go?  He was right behind us.”
Knowing where Marty was planning on going, Gloria groaned.  “He went back for Alex,” she said, “he’s gonna get himself killed.”
“Well boys, our monochromatic friend’s in danger.  Looks like we have a job to do,” said Skipper before giving out orders, “captain’s log: embarking into hostile environment.  Kowalski, we’ll need to win the hearts and minds of the natives.  Rico, we’ll need special tactical equipment.  We’re gonna face extreme peril.  Private probably won’t survive.”
Private, who was writing down the orders, broke off the crayon’s tip upon hearing the last order.  While he got nervous, Blicky said, “how will we know where Alex went?  He could be anywhere.”
“Maurice did say Alex should go to the fossa side of the island,” said Elycia, “that must be where the predators live.”
“And Riley,” said Skipper.
Riley turned to Skipper and saluted.  “Yes sir,” he asked.
“You lead your team into conflict and we’ll be assisting you all the way,” said Skipper, “we’re gonna have to work together in order to accomplish this mission.”
“You’re right Skipper,” said Riley before turning to his teammates, “everyone, let’s go retrieve our friends.  Predator side of the island, here we come!”
On the entrance of the predator side of Madagascar, Marty stood trying to shake a cactus off his rear.  Having travelled to the territory of the fossa in search of Alex, Marty had gone the same way Alex did.  After shaking off the cactus, Marty resumed calling out to Alex.  “ALEX!  COME OUT ALEX!  THE BOAT’S HERE!  WE CAN GO HOME,” he called, unaware that he was being watched by some hungry fossa.
Lightning flashed in the sky as Alex lay in his isolation spot.  He was weak and desperate for food.  As he lay in his spot, he slowly opened his eyes while shading his face from the flashing lightning.  As he opened his eyes, he found himself back in his exhibit at the Central Park zoo, with hundreds of steaks smiling at him.  “ALEX, ALEX, ALEX, ALEX, ALEX, ALEX, ALEX, ALEX…” they cheered.
Overcome with hunger again, he slowly got to his feet and raised his paws into the air, claws out, and tongue flicking.  The crowd cheered before Alex heard a familiar voice.  “ALEX!”
Suddenly his vision of being at the zoo ended and he noticed Marty standing nearby, trying to get his attention.  “Alex,” said Marty again.
Alex stood completely surprised that his friend was standing there.  “Marty,” he asked, getting nervous.
“Snap out of it Alex,” said Marty, “the boat came back.  We can get outta here.  We can go back to civilization, and everything will be just like it used to be.”
Despite hearing that rescue was on the island, Alex was extremely reluctant, fearing that he’ll hurt Marty again.  “Stay back…please,” begged Alex as he backed away, “I’m a monster.”
“Alex, you’re no monster,” said Marty, trying to reassure him, “you’re my friend.  We’re a team.  You and me, remember?”
Suddenly, Alex lunged forward and tried lashing out at the zebra with his claws.  Marty swiftly backed away, shocked that Alex did this once again.  But Alex quickly regained his senses and panted again.  “I don’t wanna hurt you,” he said sadly.
Marty, seeing that Alex was still struggling with his predatory instincts, felt very sad.  Alex, on the brink of going predator again, stopped himself and, feeling no other choice, hid himself in a nearby cave.  Marty watched him run and felt helpless.  However, Marty didn’t know that he was being watched from above by the fossa pack.  They panted quietly while some stuck out their tongues, waiting for the right moment to attack.  Marty, oblivious to his stalkers, looked at the cave, still worried about Alex, but unwilling to give up on him.  He got into the isolation zone and approached the cave.  Inside the cave, Alex sat in a corner, completely unsure of what to do.  “Alex,” said Marty, “I ain’t leaving without you.”
Alex hid his face in shame.  Marty, still seeing that Alex was refusing to comply, out of fear for Marty’s safety, felt down again.  But instead of leave, he walked over to a nearby rock and sat on it.  He didn’t know what to do.  How was he to get Alex to come out without worrying about going predator again?  But Marty was not quitting on Alex: the lion he was best friends with for years, the one who he had fun with while on Madagascar.  As Marty thought for a moment on how to get Alex to come out, he remembered something from back at the zoo.  “Alex,” he said, “I’m thinking of a song.  It’s a wonderful song.  I’m sure you’re familiar with it.  ‘Start spreading the news…I’m leaving today…’”
Alex opened his eyes, remembering this as the song he sang to cheer Marty up on his birthday.  “‘We are a great big part of it,’” Marty continued, hoping to get Alex to join in, “come on, you know the words…two little words.”
Alex started coming back to his senses as he listened to Marty, but was still too nervous to come out.  “Please don’t make me sing this by myself,” begged Marty, “you really don’t wanna hear me sing this by myself.”
But before he could say anything else, he spotted something lurking in the shadows.  It was a fossa, sneaking up on him, as if he was about to pounce.  He was joined by several other fossa, and they all looked hungry.  Marty got up and backed away, starting to get nervous.  “Hey, uh, Alex…could you come here for a minute,” he asked before backing up to in between two of the sharp sticks, “hey, Alex.  A…li…li…li…little help…”
One of the fossas jumped towards Marty, but Marty swiftly kicked him away in a reflex.  Now seeing that he was in huge trouble, Marty screamed before turning around to flee.  “AAAAHHH!  HELP ME,” he screamed before fleeing for his life, with the fossa right behind him, “ALEX!  HE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-LP!”
Alex, hearing Marty’s scream for help, remained in his cave, but gave an angry glare, knowing what he had to do.
The hungry fossa chased the zebra far from Alex’s area, all giggling maniacally.  Marty kept fleeing as fast as he could.  “HELP ME!  ANYBODY HELP ME,” he cried as he noticed some of the fossa chase after him from a cliff, “SOMEBODY!”
He turned and saw two fossa pouring salt on Marty.  Marty swiftly shook them off as he kept running.  “HE-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-LP!”
Some of the fossa got in Marty’s path, stopping the zebra in his tracks.  Now having their prey surrounded, the fossa crept up on the terrified zebra, ready to attack.  The fossa started piling up on Marty, ready to feast, when suddenly, they all heard a loud jungle cry.  Everyone looked and saw Melman swinging on a vine like Tarzan.  Melman rammed through the crowd of fossa grabbed Marty.  “Melman,” asked a surprised Marty as they rode into the jungle.
“That’s right baby,” said Melman before crashing into a rock.
Nearby, Gloria and the gang grabbed their friends and made a dash to get away.  “RUN,” cried Gloria.
“QUICK, THIS WAY,” said Elycia.
The fossa, confused at first, became angry seeing that their prey was getting away.  They chased after the group again.  “What’s the plan,” asked Marty as they ran.
“This is the plan,” said Gloria as they kept running.
“Fossa hungry,” said one of the fossa.
“Fossa eat,” said another.
“THIS IS THE PLAN,” asked a frantic Marty.
“SKIPPER, GO,” shouted Riley.
Skipper swiftly rolled out from behind a branch and pointed a red pistol at the fossa.  “Fossa halt,” he ordered.
The fossa stopped and looked at the penguin, confused.  The zoosters and gang looked at Skipper, surprised too.  Skipper turned his gun into the sky and fired.  A blast of fire flew into the sky and erupted in the air.  Lines of smoke came flying down to the ground like a fireworks display.  This act made every one of the fossa look in awe.  “Ooooh,” they said as they stared at the sky, “fossa aaaahhh!”  
With them distracted, Skipper crawled underneath their legs, where he met up with Kowalski.  Rico vaulted himself over the predators, with a long staff from the boat.  “Fossa oooh!”
Skipper, Kowalski and Private put the boat steering wheel on the ground.  Rico landed the staff in the center of the wheel.  With that, Kowalski put out a plate and Private positioned himself posing on it.  Skipper put some cream on Private’s face while Rico barfed out a cherry.  “Fossa aaaahhh!”
Private let out a whistle while the other penguins hid underneath the wheel.  “Come and get it,” said Private.
The fossa turned their attention to Private and became attracted, thinking he would make a good meal.  But before they could attack, the other penguins spun the wheel around.  The fossa crashed into the spinning wheel and collapsed onto the ground while Private ran alongside the wheel.  As for everyone else, they watched the penguins do their trick.  But as they, watched, they heard some of the fossa appear from behind them.  Seeing that they were still in trouble, they tried running, but found themselves surrounded by more and more of the pack.  Surrounded, but not going down without a fight, Gloria used Melman’s head as a hammer and whacked the fossa sticking their heads out of a log.  “Take that,” said Melman as he whacked them.
“Fossa ow!”
“These guys just keep coming,” said Jicky as he fought back.
“Don’t give up guys,” said Riley as he fended off as many fossa as he could, “keep fighting.”
“TAKE THIS, YOU ANNOYING WEASELS,” snapped Claite as he attacked the fossa with his tail and fists.
But there were so many of the fossa and they kept coming at the gang members.  “Riley, we’re outnumbered,” said Ari and Yusi, before getting swarmed by a lot of them, “CRUD!”
“ARI! YUSI,” cried Kristie before getting pounced on herself.
As for the penguins, they started getting overwhelmed too.  “There’s too many of them Skipper,” said Private as he dodged some of the attacks.
“It’s been a real pleasure serving with you boys,” said Skipper as he, Kowalski and Rico stood together.
Skipper karate chopped a nearby fossa, before seeing that there were a lot more coming.  But before the fossa could turn the tide of the fight in their favor, everyone heard a loud, terrifying roar coming from above.  They looked and saw Alex on all four legs, roaring loudly.  “Alex,” asked Marty, hopeful.
“That’s my kill,” said Alex to the fossa, “mine.”
Everyone became nervous upon hearing Alex’s words.  Alex leaped onto ground level, where everyone else was and slowly approached the group.  The fossa backed out of the snarling Alex’s way as he got closer to Marty and the others.  “Alex hungry,” he said, “Alex eat.”
Both of Alex’s front claws extracted out as he growled.  Seeing that Alex was once again going predator, but now having nowhere to run, everyone nervously braced themselves for his attack.  The fossa gave Alex some space as he got closer.  None of the fossa were on Marty, Gloria, Melman or the gang when Alex got very, very close to them.  Alex had his eyes on Marty first and he slowly approached the terrified zebra, snarling quietly.  Marty hid his eyes, bracing for an attack, but before anything could happen, Alex quietly whispered, “psst.”
Marty nervously opened his eyes as Alex whispered, “it’s showtime.”
Marty opened his eyes wide upon seeing that Alex was faking his attack.  “Thanks for not giving up on me Marty,” said Alex.
Although Alex wasn’t going to attack, Marty still had some complaints.  “Man, you almost gave me a heart attack,” he said as Gloria, Melman and the gang realized what Alex was doing, “you can’t just come sneak up on me.  Just because you’re a lion…”
Alex quickly shut Marty’s mouth, not wanting him to ruin the fake attack.  “Shh, shh.  We’re getting out of here,” he whispered, “guys, just go with me on this.  Like I said, ‘it’s showtime.’”
Alex let out a growl as he grabbed onto Marty.  “Mine,” he said as he then grabbed Gloria, Melman and the gang, all while acting like he was going to attack, “my kill!  THEY’RE ALL MINE!”
Deciding to play along, the zoosters and gang started despairing while the fossa started getting nervous.  “AH!  It’s the king of the beasts,” cried Gloria, “OH NO!”
“Please don’t eat me Mr. Lion,” begged Marty.
“He’s big and scary,” said Melman.
“NO, DON’T EAT US KING OF BEASTS,” begged Riley dramatically, “PLEASE LET US GO!”
“SPARE ME PLEASE!  I HAVE A WIFE AND A COUPLE OF KIDS,” cried Jicky, “ok, maybe not yet, BUT STILL!  I CAN’T TAKE IT!”
“FEAR ME,” said Alex to the fossa, “savagery beyond comprehension!”
“AAHH,” screamed Gloria.
“NO, PLEASE DON’T,” cried Dicky.
“I’m far too young to die,” begged Marty.
“A monster,” cried Melman, “A MONSTER!”
Alex swiftly tossed everyone aside before turning to the fossa.  “AND YOU,” he said angrily as he pointed towards them.
The fossa got more frightened.  “Me,” asked one of them.
Now springing into physical action, Alex swiped some of the fossa away before swiping away another group.  The zoosters and gang, now revealing that they were faking it, started fighting back as well.  “Oh you want some of this,” asked Gloria before squishing some of the fossa with her bottom, “YOU BETTER RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”
Alex grabbed one of the fossa and tossed him towards Marty.  Marty caught him and held him to the ground.  “Somebody call the cop,” said Marty as Melman hit him away like a golf ball.
“HE’S PSYCHOTIC,” exclaimed Melman.
Elycia jumped into the air and did a somersault before landing near the terrified fossa.  She spun herself around and kicked every fossa around her.  As for Icky, he started hopping around the fossa very fast.  “‘OH WHEN THE SAINTS…GO MARCHING IN!  OH WHEN THE SAINTS GO MARCHING IN…DAH, DAH, DAH, DAH…” he sang wildly as the fossa tried catching him, but were distracted by Alex.
“Now you are talking my language pal,” a voice came from the nearby vegetation.
The gang looked in the direction of where the voice came from, and to their amazement, they saw Toby and Denko emerge from the bushes.  “TOBY! DENKO,” they cried.
Moving fast, Toby and Denko jumped over the fossa like he was leaping over some rocks.  The fossa watched the mammals jump, unable to believe that he was capable of doing this.  With Toby jumping, this gave Alex another chance to attack them.  “Can’t catch me, crazy little fossa,” said Toby calmly as he kept distracting them.
Alex grabbed one of the fossa’s tails and swung him around his body like a gymnastic ribbon.  The other fossa backed away in fear over the powerful lion.  “This is MY territory,” said Alex, “UNDERSTAND?”
The fossa nodded yes frantically as Alex said, “I never EVER wanna see you on my terf again.”
Alex let out a loud roar, scaring off the fossa once again.  Unable to take it anymore, they all fled back to the predator territory.  One of the fossa tripped after accidentally bonking his head with another fossa.  He nervously looked back and saw the gang and Alex staring at him.  “Heh, heh,” chucked Riley.
“Heh, heh, heh,” chucked Denko.
“HEH,” chucked Chicky.
“Boo,” Alex said.
The lone fossa swiftly turned around and fled to catch up with his fellow fossa.  With the predators gone, everyone happily rejoiced.  “WAHOO,” cheered Gloria.
“YEAH, YOU THE CAT,” cheered Marty. 
“WOOHOO,” cheered Melman as they approached their friend.
“YOU DID IT ALEX,” said Riley, “JOB WELL DONE!”
Everyone embraced with Alex.  “GOT MY BOY BACK,” said Gloria happily.
But they weren’t the only ones celebrating.  In a branch overhead, they heard someone cheering as well.  “I DID IT!”
They looked and saw King Julien and Maurice.  Julien, seeing that his plan of having Alex scare off the fossa worked, rejoiced as well.  “GIVE ME SOME LOVE,” he celebrated, “THE PLAN WORKED, THE PLAN WORKED!  I’M VERY CLEVER!”
Everyone rolled their eyes as they watched Julien celebrated, seeing that he did nothing during their fight.  “What a happy, happy lemur,” said Denko.
“Oh my gosh Denko,” said Elycia, who was happy to see Toby and Denko all ok, “I can’t believe it.  You’re still alive.”
“That’s right my gal,” said Toby, “I’m A-OK.”
“But how,” asked Picky, “we thought you were gone after Alex attacked us during that party.”
“I thought I was too, but I was capable of getting away through hiding in my shell,” said Denko, “then Julien and Maurice up there came back and found me when all was calm again.” 
“So they must be the ones who brought you back to us,” said Ostron.
“Julien’s right about one thing anyway,” said Jicky, “he and Maurice saved your skin.”
“I’M THE ONE BABY!  Come on, time to robot,” celebrated Julien before doing robotic maneuvers with Maurice and talking like a robot, “I am very clever king.  I am super genius.  I am robot king of the monkey things.  Compute, compute…”
The gang sighed as they watched the lemur’s crazy antics.  “For a king, he’s very whacky and nuts,” whispered Julia.
“I hear ya,” said Blicky.
“So…what’s for lunch,” asked Alex.
Everyone became nervous upon hearing Alex ask that question.  Although they fended off the fossa and were together again, they now had one more problem: feed Alex before something bad happens with his instincts.
Some time later, at the Casa Del Wild bar, everyone, including the rest of the lemurs, gathered at a table.  Alex had his mane cleaned up and he was getting orders from Skipper on what to do.  “Close those eyes,” ordered Skipper.
“Why do I have to close my…” 
“Do it,” ordered Skipper again.
Alex closed his eyes.  “Yeah, they’re closed.”
“Tighter.”
“Yes sir,” replied Alex before peaking a little.
“No peaking.”
“Alright, they’re closed,” said Alex as he closed his eyes again.
“Rico,” ordered Skipper.
Rico, who was standing at the bar table, took out a fish and started chopping it into pieces with two long knives, like a seasoned chef.  After swinging his knives around effortlessly, he launched the fish into the air.  It came back down in several pieces of cube like shapes.  “Hai,” said Rico before tossing Skipper a piece.
“Open that hatch,” said Skipper.
Alex opened his mouth and Skipper put the fish piece on his tongue.  “Fire in the hole,” announced Skipper before closing his mouth, “now chew.”
Alex started chewing.  “Chew like you mean it,” said Skipper.
Alex did that and he started feeling the taste of fish.  “Savor it,” said Skipper.
Everyone else was nearby and they waited eagerly for Alex to say something about the fish piece he just ate.  “And,” asked Marty.
“Well,” asked Gloria.
“Pretty good, right,” asked Melman.
“There’s always plan B,” said Julien as he offered Alex Mort.
“You gotta have some reaction to that taste,” said Picky, “what do you think?  Is it good?”
Although he had eaten steak all his life, he thought this piece of fish was delicious.  “This is better than steak,” he said, “I love it!  I LOVE IT!”
“The kitty loves the fishy,” announced Skipper.
The lemurs cheered while Skipper high fived Kowalski and Private.  “I propose a toast.  Now he may be a pain the butt at times, trust me, I know,” said Marty before showing where Alex bit him on the rear, “but this cat proved to me without a doubt, that his heart is bigger than his stomach.  To Alex.”
“TO ALEX,” everyone cheered as they held up their coconut drinks.
Everyone took a drink, and since it was saltwater, they quickly spat it out.  Everyone, from Alex, Marty, Gloria, Melman, the gang, the penguins and lemurs, spat out their drinks.  In Julien’s case, he spat his water on Maurice, but Maurice spat his out back at him.  “Enough, stop it,” said Julien, before doing it again. 
“Well, what do you guys think,” asked Marty, “should we head back to New York?”
“I don’t know Marty,” said Alex, “I mean, this is your dream.  You sure you wanna leave?”
“I don’t care where we are,” said Marty as he and his fellow zoo animals for an embrace, “as long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter to me.”
“Well we have to go back to New York ourselves anyway,” said Riley, “but whatever you guys are doing, we’ll support you, no matter what.”
“I might not have gotten along with you at first,” said Claite, “but now I see you as one of the funniest and most awesome groups I’ve ever known.”
“Me too,” said Faja, “you guys are great friends.”
“And great travelling buddies too,” added Chicky, “way to go!”
“You guys rock,” said Icky.
“Wherever you go, and whatever you do, we wish you good luck,” said Kristie.
“Big kudos to everyone of y’all,” said Denko.
“Well, in that case,” said Alex before turning to Rico, “yo Rico, I’ll take three hundred orders, to go!”
Rico started chopping up more fish pieces as Julien spoke up.  “Yes, yes, but before you leave, I have an announcement to make, so shut up everyone,” he said as everyone settled down, “after much deep and profound things inside my head, I have decided to thank you for bringing peace…to our home, and to make you feel good, I’m gonna give you this lovely parting gift.”
Julien handed Alex his crown.  Despite the nice gift, Alex was modest about taking it.  “No, I couldn’t.  Really, I can’t take your crown,” he said.
“That’s ok, I’ve got a bigger crown,” said Julien as Maurice put another crown, one that had red, pinkish leaves on it and a gecko, “it’s got a gecko on it.  Look at him shake!  Go Stevie go!”
After the celebration, the New Yorkers and gang, with Toby and Denko now by their side, stood on the boat bow, waving goodbye to all of the cheering lemurs.  “Bye little fuzzbuckets,” said Alex.
“Thanks for everything,” said Gloria.
“Bye,” said Marty.
“So long fellas,” said Tiffany.
“Bye-bye now,” said Julien.
“Arrivederci,” said Picky.
“Adios amigos” said Julia.
“Bye-bye,” said Julien.
“Toodle-oo,” shouted Maurice.
“See you later crocodile,” said Julien before turning to Maurice, “Maurice, my arm is tired.  Wave it for me.”
Julien sat on a coconut and rested his feet on Mort’s head.  Maurice dryly waved Julien’s hand while Mort waved back to gang and zoosters again.  “Faster you naughty little monkey.”
On the boat, everyone looked at the lemurs, happy to have known them during their time on the island.  Behind them, Mason and Phil, still in their crates, waved as well, ignoring the conversation Alex and the others had.  “Thanks for letting me come on along fellas,” said Denko.
“Don’t mention it pal,” said Blicky, “we think you’d make a great teammate.”
“You’ve been very helpful by helping us see the bright side of our time on the island,” said Riley, “we all owe you a big thanks.”
“Sometimes thinking like that can make things easier and less stressful,” said Claite, “it’s like how Baloo taught us the Bare Necessities.”
“Or how Timon and Pumbaa taught us Hakuna Matata,” added Elycia.
“You know guys, by the time we get back to New York, it’s gonna be the middle of winter,” said Alex, “so I was thinking, why rush?  Maybe we could make a few side stops along the way.”
Marty, liking this idea, said, “maybe Paris.”
“WOO, you just read my mind,” said Gloria.
“You know, we could always have another adventure with you four,” said Riley, “that is as long as we can find a place to contact our authorities once our badges come back online.”
“Yeah, we’ll get there,” said Alex, “don’t worry.  Thinking positive like Toby, remember?  You’ll see your loved ones again.  I know it.”
“Maybe we can go to Spain before we get to New York,” said Picky.
“Or maybe Gibraltar,” suggested Kristie.
“Yeah, run with the bulls,” suggested Marty.
“What about Fiji,” asked Gloria.
“Ooh, Canada, can we,” asked Melman, “cheap meds.  Eh?”
“You know, I wouldn’t even mind coming back here for a visit sometime,” said Alex.
“That’s a definite possibility,” said Riley.
“I could do that,” said Melman.
“You can say that again,” said Gloria.
The only ones who weren’t taking part in the goodbye ceremony were the penguins.  They rested in the sun, a short distance away from the lemurs, catching a tan, though they got some sunburns on their faces.  Despite this, they were enjoying basking in the warm sun of the island.  “Skipper,” said Private, “don’t you think we should tell them that the boat’s out of gas?”
The other penguins looked at Skipper, thinking about that question.  Skipper looked at his fellow penguins and thought.  “Nah!  Just smile and wave boys,” he said as he and the other penguins waved, “smile and wave.”