Mr. Anti-Hero, The Rise of the Minotaur

A Brady M. short story

It was a dark and stormy night! The villain People Club members were waiting outside the bank as they planned their next robbery. “OK, does every one remember the plan”, said Mr. Anti-Hero, AKA Badger Lee. “I am a little bit confused,” said Houdini, AKA Scowl Absalom. “So:”, said Badger, “Ninja Girl and Cat Thing will infiltrate the bank disguised as a stressed out bank employee and her therapy cat.” “I ain’t no ones therapy cat”, said Cat thing. Badger said, “Well you are just going to have to live with it if you want the money in the bank. Now, as I was saying, when me and scowl step outside the bank and wave our arms, that is Cat Things signal to start scratching other bank employees.” “Sorry for being so rude about it, I am starting to like the plan”, said Cat Thing.” “Apology accepted, Cat Thing,” said Badger kindly. He continues, “Scowl teleports me into the vault while the guards rush to help the employees. I crack the safe with my crowbar and we get out of there scot-free before the cops even know we did it.” A few minutes later it was time for Badger and Scowl to make their move. They wave their arms and Cat Thing starts attacking employees. As Badger expected, the guards left their posts to help.

Scowl teleported himself and Badger into the vault but they found that someone was already robbing it! But the thing was not a person, it was a horrid creature that looked half man and half bull, and it was covered in shaggy brown fur. Badger said to the beast, “I am sorry, but we were planning the rob the bank and we had an elaborate plan, so can you please step aside and let us rob?” “AAAARRRRGGGGUUUUHHHH!” , yelled the Minotaur. “This Minotaur’s bank. Me rob it. Scowl said, “Pretty Please, just one vault.” “NNNNOOOO”, said the beast, “Minotaur no share!” Scowl whispered to Badger, “He doesn’t share? What kind of villain is he anyway.” “A weird one”, said Badger. But they had no time to talk because the Minotaur was charging at them. Badger and scowl pulled out their crowbars and prepared for battle. The Minotaur picked up Badger and threw him against the wall, then Badger got up and struck the beast with his crowbar. But the Minotaur was able to pin down Badger who yelled to Scowl, “A little help here?” Scowl smacked the Minotaur with his crowbar knocking him off Badger. Just then they all heard sirens! The cops rushed downstairs to the vault and yelled, “Freeze! Are you two associated with these two?” as the cop points to Ninja girl and Cat Thing. Ninja Girl says, “Scot-free, huh Badger?” “I’ll take that as a YES”, said the cop. “What are you two doing here?” Badger said, “Well me and him were just fighting a Minotaur who happened to be in the vault.”  “What Minotaur?” said the cop. “He was right here behind me.”, said Badger, but when he turned around there was nothing there. Badger thought, “At least prison doesn’t have termite infestation like the Villain People club HQ.”

They were all thrown into the prison vehicle and driven to jail. After they arrived, they were put into cells next to each other and each cell had two bunks. Badger and Cat Thing were put in the first cell and Scowl and Ninja Girl were put in the other one. Badger knocked on the wall and realized it was hollow so he could whisper to the two other members of the Villain Peoples Club. Badger whispered to Scowl, “What do you think that thing was that we fought?” Scowl replied, “They are called Manimals and Cat-Thing is one of them. They exist because of some kind of accident where their genes get screwed up. They are still classified as humans, but they look like animals.” Then they heard a loudspeaker announcement: “Badger Geri Lee, please report to the interrogation annex. “Seriously?”, said Cat-Thing, “You went by Geri?” “My Brother Theodore was ‘Theo’, so I needed a nickname too!”, said Badger. The guard went to the cell and unlocked it and grabbed Badger by the shoulder and took him to the annex. He sat down and faced a mustachioed police officer. The officer said, “I am Officer McButt.” Badger interrupts him,    and says, “Your name’s seriously McButt? That’s hilarious!”, said Badger “Look who’s talking, Badger.”, said McButt, “Touche.”, said Badger. “I would like to know what you were doing last night.”, Said McButt. “I was robbing a bank!”, said Badger. Thanks for your honesty, Mr. Antihero.”, said McButt and he proceeded to hand Mr. Antihero a Lollipop. “Wow! “Thanks officer!”, said Badger, “I never knew prison gave out Lollipops!” But this was too good to be true because the lollipop was a sedative! Badger passed out and McButt took off a rubber mask revealing himself to really be…suspense… THE MINOTAUR! The minotaur got the police telephone and called a certain number. Heroboy picked up and said, “Did you get Mr. Antihero?” “YES! MINOTAUR GOT ANTIHERO.”, said the Minotaur.

Meanwhile the other members of the Villain People Club were sitting in their cells, feeling worried about Badger. But then they heard another loudspeaker announcement, “All prisoners report to the mess hall.” Cat Thing said, “We can go check on Badger since the interrogation room is on the way.” The doors to their cells opened automatically and they walked to the interrogation room. They cracked open the door and saw the Minotaur talking to Hero Boy and they overheard the conversation. Hero Boy said, “Bring the anti-hero to Hero Boy tower.” The Villain People knew that they had to escape and rescue Badger from Hero Boy’s tower. They proceeded to the mess hall and Ninja Girl said, “How are we supposed to escape, there are guards everywhere?” Then then heard a voice with a British accent say, “Hello chums, you need help breaking out of prison?” They turned around and saw a half man and half shark smiling at them. “The name is Landshark”, said the creature. “All you have to do to escape is yell ’PRISON RIOTTTTT“ and the all of the other prisoners began to yell and the guards left their posts at the door. Our heroes and the Landshark darted out the door to freedom.

They then found a sewer and crawled through it so the guards could not find their trail. Cat Thing said to Landshark, “What landed you in prison?” Landshark said, “Transporting a litter of puppies from Alaska to Arizona.” Cat Thing said, “I am not even going to ask anymore questions.” “If you don’t mind me asking”, said the Land shark, “Where are you guys going.” Scowl said, “Hero Boy Tower.” “I know where that is,” said Landshark. He led them to the next sewer exit and they came out of the humid tunnel. When they arrived at the tower, Hero Boy met them and said, “You are early, I haven’t even finished my ransom note yet. So, anyway, I need that tape where I said that I was evil.” “Oh, I have that”, said a voice from the back room. “OK, let me cut your zip ties so you can hand it over”, said Hero Boy. “Oh, I freed myself five minutes ago”, said Badger as he stepped into the room. He placed the cassette in Hero Boy’s hand. “So, that is it?”, said Ninja Girl. “Yep. Thank you for being cooperative.”, said Hero Boy” After the Villain People left, Hero Grabbed the cassette and put in the player and hit start. Rick Astley’s “Never Going to Give You Up”, begins to play. After the chorus, there is a voice over from Badger saying, “Well, looks like we won!” A very loud “AAARRRGGGUUUAAAHHH! Could heard coming from the tower.

Epilogue: Landshark said, “Cheerrio my friends. I am going to be headed back to Jolly old England.” Cat Thing said, “It’s a shame you’re leaving, because we have one extra plane ticket to France. We’re planning to steal an international tourist attraction.”

Note: Hi Book Sailors! I’m sorry to say, but this is my last story for the summer. If you need to satisfy your thirst to Keep Reading and Sail on, I recommend going to my friend Charlie’s website. It’s called CharlieTheBookWorm. Mr. Anti-Hero and Hero Boy will soon be added to the Meet the Team page as soon as Auntie Obvious gets around to it!

Mr. Antihero, The First Felony

A Brady M. Short Story

Meet Badger, AKA Mr. Antihero and AKA (self proclaimed) King of Pick-pockets.

It was Badger’s big moment. He was going to jay-walk through an intersection although the light said “DON’T WALK”. He put one foot on the road and then the other, but he noticed that some guy listening to music and not paying attention was blocking him. Badger directed the guy to the crosswalk and, before he could move on, the light turned to “WALK”! AAARRRRGGGGUUUHHH!! “I wanted to jay walk!”
So, he waited until the light said “Don’t Walk” again, and he stepped into the intersection. BAM!!! Badger was hit by a speeding vehicle. “I see why they outlawed jay walking”, said Badger as he flew through the air. He got up and dusted himself off and walked home. He turned on the TV and saw his image. He thought, “They are going to talk about the crime of mine.” But the footnote under his picture said, “Hero leads distracted man to the cross walk.” Badger said, “Oh no, now they think I am a hero.”

He went to take a walk in the park and sat down on a bench. Someone sat next to him and asked, “Are you Adam Steel?” Badger replied, “What?” The stranger said, “Thank you for using the code word, Adam, so I know it must be you. I am very fortunate to see you in your road-kill costume as well.” Badger looked sadly down at his clothes. The stranger said, “The Villain People Club really needs your help. If you want to find out more, head to 999 Evil People Drive.” Badger was excited. He could be part of a bad guy group although he had never heard of the Villain People Club. He knocked on the door at the address, which was a large tower. A man with an Afro and a goatee answered and said, “You must be Mr. Steel; come in.” Badger walked through the door and the man continued, “We are the Villain People Club. I am Scowl Absalom and they call me ‘The Great Houdini’ because I can teleport anywhere, for example……, BEHIND YOU!” He vanished and reappeared behind Badger. Scowl walked back in front of Badger and pointed to a cat on hind legs drinking from a glass of milk. He said, “That is Cat Thing. Nobody knows where he came from, but we know he is part man and part cat.” Cat Thing then said, in a very strong New York accent, “Oh boy, it looks like we have a newby here.” Houdini continued as he pointed to a woman in a black jumpsuit and said, “That is Everest Spades, AKA Ninja Girl. She won Best sword fighter in a competition comprised of the world’s worst sword fighters. We all have a problem. You know Hero Boy, the town’s hero? He has been framing us for crimes lately and there is one source that we know of to prove he has framed us, his journal!” Badger said, “How can we beat hero boy? He can lift anything he wants with his mind.” Scowl said, “We are going to break into his storage unit tonight when he is not around. So, are you in or out?”

“Alright” said Badger, “Let’s do this.”

Night fall came. They arrived at the storage unit. Scowl mimicked the voice of the owner of the storage unit and told employees that everyone could have the rest of the night off. All of them quickly left. Scowl teleported Badger inside and Cat Thing and Ninja Girl watched out for any security guards. Badger looked through the keys and found one marked “Hero Boy’s Unit”. He crept toward the unit and unlocked it. “Scowl, I am in” Badger yelled, “You can teleport to where Cat Thing and Ninja Girl are.” Badger finds the Journal on a shelf and removes it. “OOPS”, thought Badger as he noticed a scale under the spot where the journal had been. Just then he heard rapid beeping and then the storage unit blew up! “AARRGGUUHH” said Badger as he flew through the air. He landed by Scowl, Cat thing and Ninja Girl. Badger dusted himself off and said, “I got the Journal.” Scowl said, “Good job, Adam, but I thought you would get hurt in the explosion. Well, you look OK, so lets see the journal.” Scowl opened up the book and saw that it was completely……..BLANK! A voice in the distance said, “Ha, Ha, Ha!” Scowl, Cat Thing and Ninja Girl all said together, “Hero Boy!” Hero Boy said, “I am sooooo evil. Ha Ha, Ha. I am not so stupid to hide all of my plans in a journal that could be so easily stolen. And I never thought you three would be so stupid as to not get the real Adam Steel.” Cat Thing said, “What?” Ninja Girl said, “We had a perfect code word of WHAT.” “What” said Badger. “Yes, What”, said Ninja Girl. Hero Boy said, “What is a stupid code word.” A stupid code word is a code word that is not smart, said Scowl. “What, What was the code word?” said Badger. At that, Hero Boy said, “ENOUGH. No more about code words!”

You really enlisted Badger Lee, a weak wannabe criminal who calls himself Mr. Antihero AKA the King of Pick Pockets. Hero Boy then picked up Badger with his mind and tossed him into a lake. “NOOOO,” said the three members of the Villain People Club. Badger tried to swim to shore but before he reached it, he passed out. Scowl focused on Badger and was able to teleport him back to the Villain People Club tower. Despite the set back, the three decided to let Badger into their club. “After all”, said Cat Thing, “All of us villains lie to each other and do stupid things, like when I used Scowl’s toothbrush to crush a fly.” “What”, barked Scowl. “Oh no, is that a code word or a question,” asked Ninja Girl. Scowl did not respond.

“But something good did come out of last night,” said Ninja Girl as she pulled out a tape recorder. She played Hero Boy’s voice saying, “Ha,Ha,Ha, I am so evil.” “That’s the evidence we needed”, said Badger. “Maybe we can tell Hero Boy that we will share the tape with the police if he doesn’t stop framing us for crimes we didn’t commit.” The Villain People go to the top of the tower and Badger yells, “Hero Boy, we have something you may want to see.” Hero Boy came over and said, “Did someone call me?” Ninja Girl played the recording of Hero Boy. “If you agree to stop framing us, we will give it to you,” Said Scowl. Hero boy said, “Or maybe I’ll just take for free,” as he threw a metal box at them. Scowl teleported to Hero Boy and kicked him, Cat Thing scratched him, Ninja Girl whacked him with her sword, and Badger punched him, before he could stop them by moving other objects with his mind. “You got me this time, but next time it won’t be so easy”, said Hero Boy as he flew away.

The four members of the Villain People Club still had the recording if they found that Hero boy was framing them in the future. Which they all had a feeling would happen.

THE END

Relax, Guys!

I have yet to get a letter from Disney containing scripts for the next Mandalorian episodes, but there have been some concerns considering my last post, and I just want to inform you that Brady the Book Sailor is not closing down next year due to money. It’s because I am busy with sports and school, and have recently taken up a lot of new hobbies. I saw one post on my amazing friend Charlie’s website saying that we need support – and we LOVE your support, we just don’t need $$$ support. Although there is one way to get us to continue: 2023 has to be our biggest year ever, and our YouTube Channel has to reach 1,000 subscribers. I know that may sound like a lot, but that’s the point. It can’t be a challenge unless it is challenging! I know this type of content isn’t normal for us, and let me assure you we will be getting back to normal (posting stories and reading challenges) soon. In the next two weeks, my all-new story, Mr. Antihero: The First Felony will be posted!

Brady The Book Sailor: The Final Year (Most Likely)

Hey Book Sailors, I know it’s been a little while since I’ve posted, and I’m not sure if I’ll have time to update frequently like we once did. We pay to keep the site up every two years, and the next time to pay is in 2024. I’m not feeling like having a blog for much longer, so I am sad to announce that 2023 and the beginning of 2024 might be the site’s last years. Don’t worry, because I will still be posting in that period some projects that I have previously announced. This will only including The Monkey Legion, Mr. Antihero, and Mercury, the Last Avatar (title subject to change), as well as two other stories that I am proud to announce, RAYMOND the Time-Travelling Robot and Bluejay the Psychic Archer. Also, a crossover between Bluejay, RAYMOND, Mr. Antihero, and Mercury will be hitting the site later this year.

Of course, I reserve the right to to change my mind if Disney decides they need a sixth grader to review advance copies of all things Star Wars and Marvel. LOL.

Well, be sure to Keep Reading and Sail On, even if I am not on the site to tell you that. A huge thank you to all of our fans in the USA, as well as internationally! If you like our site, feel free to leave a comment!

— Brady the Book Sailor

Winter Reading Regatta: Carol of the Books

[Brady]: This winter, we’re giving the gift of reading! With thousands of intricate rules that I’ve specified sitting at my desk at 3:00 a.m..

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude. What have we talked about? KISS. Keep It Simple Sailor.

[Brady]: So we’re not doing point breaks?

[Auntie Obvious]: It’s Christmas. Not the Reading Olympics.

[Brady]: Do you have any ideas about how this Reading Regatta could go?

[Auntie Obvious]: How about we give the gift of reading? You partner up with a reading buddy and you recommend a book for your buddy to read?

[Brady]: That’s cool, but let’s call it Carol of the Books or Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reader or something like that.

[Auntie Obvious]: Those are both great, but let’s do Carol of the Books! Everybody try to finish their book by the end of 2022, which is 10 days away.

[Brady]: My book for you that I’ve selected is A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket.

[Auntie Obvious]: Cool! My book for you is Peter and the Starcatchers by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson. It’s a really quick read!

[Brady]: Dude, it’s 451 pages. When we were discussing having another Reading Regatta, you said the limit should be 400 pages. Keep it Simple, Sailor.

[Auntie Obvious]: Fine. My selection is the first 400 pages of Peter and the Starcatchers. If you don’t want to find out how it ends, that’s on you.

[Brady]: If I finish it, can we do weekly updates and point breaks?

[Auntie Obvious]: But it’s only one book and…you know what? Knock yourself out. Sure, if you finish it, we’ll do unlimited hot chocolate and point breaks.

[Brady]: Fine. What if somebody reading this doesn’t have a Book Buddy, though?

[Auntie Obvious]: We’ll be their book buddy! They can choose from one of our selections below! ::whispers:: pick mine, pick mine, pick mine…

Brady	Auntie Obvious
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning	Peter and the Starcatchers
A Christmas Carol	The Hobbit
8-Bit Christmas	Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, I’m totally going to read 8-Bit Christmas! That movie was awesome! Except for the puking.

[Brady]: I really liked The Lightning Thief. That was a solid choice!

[Auntie Obvious]: Time to say the thing!

[Brady]: Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Regatta! And also…Keep Reading…Sled on!

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude.

Reading Regatta Fall Flight: The Big Finish!

[Auntie Obvious]: Hey, Book Sailors! The Reading Regatta Fall Flight ends today!

[Brady]: Did you finish your four books?

[Auntie Obvious]: Yes! I finished six. Well, allllllmost. How many did you read?

[Brady]: I read six! I read Jurassic Park, and I re-read all five Percy Jackson and the Olympians books. And Kendall (my Kindle) tells me that I’m 54% finished with The Hobbit. What did you read?

[Auntie Obvious]: I read “Rebel Rising”, which is about Jyn Erso, “The Reading List”, which was my book club book, “The Wives of Henry the VIII” which was a history book, plus Rick Riordan’s “Throne of Fire” and also Jurassic Park. Plus, I will finish The Silmarillion TONIGHT if it kills me. (Update 10/31/21 – Auntie Obvious did, in fact, finish The Silmarillion, and luckily, it did NOT kill her.

[Brady]: And how many pages is the Index in The Silmarillion?

[Auntie Obvious]: The Appendix starts on page 379 and goes to page 458 – so 79 pages total. This was a hard book for me, because I have a challenge remembering names and places, and this book is FULL of them. So in this book, they will be all, “This famous elf was named Steve, but the other elves called him Bob, but some other people called him Jim, but then after a rabid bunny gnawed off his big toe, he was thereafter known as Walter.” ::slowly bangs head on desk::

[Brady]: I was struggling with Trials of Apollo, and I just realized today that the Appendix is there for a reason.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, I think you will really like the conclusion of that series if you get back into it. So how come we haven’t seen any new stories from you lately?

[Brady]: I have been working on something big in the Power Monkey industry, and I’ve got this project with Dadat, which has a possibility of being published, but I don’t know for sure yet. Under both of our names, as we agreed!

[Auntie Obvious]: That sounds awesome! I can’t wait to hear more! Any final thoughts as we wrap up the Fall Flight?

[Brady]: Okay, never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down, never gonna run around and desert you…

[Auntie Obvious]: Oh nice (***sarcasm***), a Rickroll. Anything else to say?

[Brady]: Coke is better than Pepsi.

[Auntie Obvious]: Anything else related to reading, since this isn’t a soft drink website?

[Brady]: Keep Reading…Sail On! Stay tuned for our special winter reading challenge!

Fall Flight Reading Regatta

[Brady]: Wow, our first annual Fall Flight Reading Regatta! It feels like we just ended the Summer Smackdown Reading Regatta, and now it’s already September!

[Auntie Obvious]: A “flight” is a sample of four cool things, so with the Fall Flight Reading Regatta, you pick four books of your choice to read between now and October 30th!

[Brady]: Let’s make up some complicated rules!

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, ever heard the acronym KISS? Keep it Simple, Sailor? But we do need to decide if the book you are currently reading counts as one or if you start with your next book.

[Brady]: You start with the next book.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude. I’m like 150 pages into Rick Riordan’s the Red Pyramid, and it’s about 550 pages long.

[Brady]: Rules are rules. ::shrugs::

[Auntie Obvious]: OK, fine. Should we show everyone the awesome Fall Flight Reading Regatta trailer that we made?

[Brady]: Lights, camera, action!

[Brady]: So how do you know who wins?

[Auntie Obvious]: Everyone gets participation awards!

[Brady]: What about the weekly updates and point breaks that we did for the Summer Smackdown Reading Regatta?

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude. Keep it Simple.

[Brady]: Fine. But you and I are having a contest to compare page totals from our four books.

[Auntie Obvious]: Fine. It. Is. On.

[Brady]: Keep Reading. Sail On. And welcome to the Fall Flight!

New Book Sailor Announcements!

Hi, Book Sailors! Today, I have a couple of new announcements for new series! I hope you really like these, and that I’m able to release them all very soon.

The Monkey Legion is the sequel series to the hit Power Monkey novels. It follows Aaron two months after The Elusive Prey, in an all-out war against the Gorilla Clan. I am also here to give you some news about the titles of The Monkey Legion books and a new hero, who will be a main character in The Monkey Legion. Say hello to Shield Maiden. Shield Maiden is the sister of Alex and Nartha, who has to help Aaron in his escapades to defeat a mysterious gorilla named Wade Woodrow Walters and a mysterious other villain along with many surprise characters. The book titles are:

• The Crusader and the Shadow
• Arrows of Vengeance
• Metal Reckoning
• Starfall Battlefield
• Wade’s Fury

Next up, we have an entirely new series starring an entirely new character. May I introduce you to Mercury, The Last Avatar? This story, based on Roman and Egyptian mythology, follows Mercury, the last of the Avatars, who is being hunted down by an evil entity named Pluto. The Mercury books will consist of three books:

• Mercury: The Last Avatar
• Mercury: Journey through the Duat
• Mercury: Flames of Justice

For my next comedy series, we have Mr. Anti-Hero, the villain who does it all wrong. He gets recruited by the Association of Villains to stop a hero who’s been stealing money from all the villains. This is their journey to expose the hero for what he is: a fraud. The Mr. Anti-Hero series will consist of many various books, like the classic series Power Monkey and The Kind Little Truck.

Moving on to the topic of Book Sailor Animations, we get a name change in that department: introducing Sailor Studios. Sailor Studios will broaden the view from paper animation to tech animation, as well as new audio stories, PodSailing season 2, and much, much more.

Our last and biggest announcement is that the Reading Regatta got so much attention this summer that we’re bringing it back with an all-new season and all-new rules. This time, the challenge is to read four books in two months, starting on Labor Day. Stay tuned for more details on the Fall Flight Reading Regatta.

Reading Regatta: The Finish Line 2022

[Brady]: My gosh, I can’t believe the Reading Regatta is over!

[Auntie Obvious]: I know, right??? And I can’t believe that you are officially a Middle Schooler now! I’m so proud! ::bursts into tears::

[Brady]: Dude, take a chill pill. And get a calculator, because we need to tally up our points! This week, I read The Secrets of Dumbledore screenplay, which earned me a whopping 500 points, plus 200 points for the Point Break, leaving me with a final score of 7,560 points.

[Auntie Obvious]: Dude, way to run up the score. Just kidding. I don’t think that’s a thing in reading, only football. This week, I read Fortune & Glory: Twisted Twenty-Seven for 250 points, which gives me a total of 3,215. You totally smoked me, even without the Point Break and the double points for kids.

[Brady]: So what are you going to read post-Reading Regatta?

[Auntie Obvious]: SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

[Brady]: I can’t understand you.

[Auntie Obvious]: The Princess and the Scoundrel by Beth Revis comes out on Tuesday. And I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!! Do you want to borrow it when I’m done?

[Brady]: My next read is probably going to be a Spider-Man comic, but I don’t know for sure. Maybe Rick Riordan’s The Tyrant’s Tomb – I got kinda sidetracked re-reading Harry Potter (for the third time). And I can’t wait for the new High Republic books to come out in the fall. No thanks on The Princess and the Scoundrel. Too much romance.

[Auntie Obvious]: Sigh. There will probably be like three pages of romance. But suit yourself. Speaking of Star Wars, how about that Andor trailer?

[Brady]: It looked amazing! It’s going to have twice as many episodes as Kenobi, and we get three on premiere day!

[Auntie Obvious]: Premiere party at my house! Time to SAY THE THING!

[Brady]: Keep Reading…Sail On! And check back with us for news about the Fall Flight Reading Regatta, where you read four books of your choice between September 1st and October 1st.

Power Monkey: The Elusive Prey

It was a dark and stormy night and Alex was walking home. Suddenly, a hooded figure approaches him and Power Monkey takes out a bananarang and says, “Who are you?”

The hooded figure says, “Nope, me first. Have you been in contact with the Reaper’s Star in the last 24 hours? Because this thing has been vibrating like crazy.” He pulls out a Unisailor card for Alex to see. He continues, “Some civilians, who weirdly were talking animals, told me to find you,….Alex Monkey! I am……….Hoodie Man!”

Power Monkey says, “How did you get that”, as he pulls a Unisailor card out of his pocket.

Hoodie says, “I made mine, didn’t you?” Alex says, “No way. You didn’t make that. It is multi-billion dollar project, you can’t afford to make one. If you could, you could buy yourself a better hoodie.”  Hoodie says, “I fished this hoodie out of a lost and found box, what do you expect. It barely fits.” Alex says. “Ok, you just admitted that you are responsible for committing theft!” Hoodie says, “OK, if you want rid of me, you can have that. But the person I was talking to, who looked a lot like a pig, told me to give you this.” Hoodie Man pulls a box out of his backpack and hands it to Alex.  He opens the Box and pulls out a purple and green suit, and says, “What is this?” Hoodie Man says, “I have no idea, but I guess it is yours.” Hoodie man then strolled out into the rain and walked over to cave with a rock sealing it. He knocked on the rock and a high-pitched voice said “Password.” ……suspense…

Hoodie Man replies, “Fudge Brownie sundae.” The door opens to reveal a small little truck. “Hey Kind Little Truck, how are you.” The truck said, “I’m fine, but you can just call me KLT.” Hoodie man stepped in and sees a Cyborg Snowman behind KLT, wrapped in a blanket. The snowman asks, “How did it go?” Hoodie Man says, “Well, Robot Snowman, he thinks I am an annoying, sarcastic fool.” Robot Snowman says, “Sooooo. What’s new.” Hoodie Man says, “Nothing.” KLT says, “I don’t think you are an annoying sarcastic fool.” Hoodie Man says, “Thanks KLT, but you may be alone on that.”

Meanwhile, Alex is in his room and he puts on the new Power Monkey suit and thinks, “It fits perfectly.” Then Alex starts packing a bag and slips his passport into his pocket. The destination on his airplane ticket reads, Shadows Peak, Norway. He steps outside, and hails a taxi to take him to the airport. The taxi is crossing a bridge when Alex sees a strange monstrous beast in front and he thinks “Bulligator” and whispers to himself “Nartha!”

Nartha was wearing a purple leather jacket on top of black leggings and was wearing a new predator mask. The eyes looked different as they appeared to have gold plated indents above and below her eye lenses.  She had a new device strapped to both of her wrists. Alex tries to open the taxi door, but it would not budge since the driver had locked the doors when Alex got in. Alex punched the window out, climbs out and confronts Nartha. He says, “Nice Mask, let me guess, made from stolen gold!” Nartha says, “Bingo.” The bulligators move toward Alex. A voice in the earpiece in Alex’s suit says, “Hello, Alex, welcome to the new suit orientation. Now let’s get started.” Just then, the bulligator pounced! Alex yells, “Skip the new suit orientation, Skip the new suit orientation!!!”

The voice said, “In case you are facing a monster, take the sonic boom sticky bomb and throw it at the beast.” Alex found the sticky bomb and threw it at the beast. KABOOM!!

Then another bulligator came running. The voice said, “If an opponent is still running toward you, remove tripping cords from the secret compartment which opens when you pull your banana belt buckle backwards, and throw them at the monster’s feet. At the last moment, Alex threw the tripping cord and the bulligator fell. “Wow, that was close. I wish your instructions could be a little faster!” Nartha, having lost two bulligators, walked away and said, “I keep letting you get away, Alex. The next time it won’t be so easy!” Power Monkey thought, “Maybe I should talk to the Hoodie guy again.”

Alex goes to the cave where he last saw Hoodie Man, and knocks on the stone door. A voice asks, “Password?” Alex looks over to a note on the door which reads, “I help everyone. So, I might as well tell you the password to help you break in. It is Fudge Brownie Sundae. Signed, Kind Little Truck. Alex says, “Fudge Brownie Sundae,” and the door opened! Alex sees Hoddie Man and says, “I need your aid finding some people to help save the universe.” Hoodie man asks, “Where would we be going?” Alex replies, “Shadow Peaks, Norway.” Hoodie Man says, “We are in!”  Alex says, “Good, and we will need all of the help we can get.”   So, off our heroes go to Norway!

Once they land, they take a boat to Shadows Peak. When they arrive, Robot Snowman asks, “Why are we here?” Power Monkey says, “We are going to find the great warriors of Shadows peak.” Hoodie man asks, “Who are they?”  Power Monkey explains, “Many years ago, these warriors were the greatest monkeys to ever walk a battlefield. But for some reason, they were driven into hiding, and we will be the ones to find them.” Hoodie said, “Are you sure they will want to be on our side? People can get really crabby when they have been in hiding a long time.” Alex says, “Oh, I am sure.”

When they start climbing the peak, someone fires an arrow right at Alex’s hand, causing him to let go of the rock he was holding on to and he let go! Hoodie Man grabs Alex’s hand and saves him from falling. The archer ties an arrow to a long rope and sticks it in the ground so he can rappel down to Alex, Hoodie Man and the others. The archer says, “I have you now, Alex.” Then he fires another arrow at Hoodie Man, who catches the arrow and throws it right back at the archer. While the archer is engaged with Hoodie Man, Alex re-fastens his grip and climbs quickly to where the archer had planted the arrow to hold the rappelling rope. Alex pulled the arrow out of the ground, and held the rope. The poor archer was still holding on and is now dangling under Power Monkey. When Power Monkey pulls the archer up, he demands to know where his leader is.

The archer says, “I’ll never tell.” Alex says, “OK archer, hold out your hands” and Alex winds the cord around the archer’s hands like handcuffs. Hoodie Man says, “Well, it looks like someone else is going along for the ride.” Kind Little Truck says, “Yeah, more friends!” They make the rest of the climb to the warrior’s village. Alex says, “This is not what I expected.” In front of the village there was a sign that read, “No Weapons! Put all weapons inside the bin.” Alex says, “This is going to take a while,” as he took all 15 of the bananarangs out of his belt. He then took out his pocket knife and all of his cords and put those in the bin. Hoodie Man took a rusty pick axe out of his back pack which he had used earlier at the uranium mine. Robot Snowman said, “Hoodie, you will have to carry my head because all of my robot body parts have weapons. Hoodie Man said, “I think you can keep your head and not use the weapons. Kind Little Truck says, “aahh, I don’t have any weapons.”

Our friends go into the village and Alex asks a villager, “Where are the warriors?” The villager replied, “We don’t fight here except for the blacksmith and we try to avoid him.” So, they go to the blacksmith shop and they ask the blacksmith if he can help them fight Nartha. The blacksmith says, “Nope. I gave up fighting a long time ago and all of the Warriors did too and we went into exile here. I do know that you can’t win a fight without friends and you seem to have some good ones with you. You don’t always need trained warriors to win a battle. What is Nartha’s weakness?”

“She is overconfident,” says Alex. “And I know she is in Costa Rica.” So, Alex realizes that he will not get warriors and weapons but he did get good advice and he has his new friend with him. So, they go off to Costa Rica to find Nartha and try to defeat her by using her weakness against her.

When they get to Costa Rica, Alex and his friends go meet Piggy at the science lab at Pig Tech. They find the lab destroyed and Piggy nowhere to be found! Alex says, “Who would do such a thing.” Then he sees graffiti on the front of the wreckage, it is a drawing of the………………….suspense…………

PredatorMask. “NNNAAARRRTTTHHHAAA!!!!” Yells Alex. Robot Snowman says, “Are you OK? Alex just yells again, “NNNAAARRRTTTHHHAAA!!!” Alex calms down and says, “My annoying twin sister must have taken my friend Piggy. We have to find her and I sure hope she doesn’t have any more of those Bulligators!” Alex says, “I need to do this alone.” His friends say “NO!” in unison.  But Alex goes off on his own to find Nartha, and hopefully Piggy. She is not hard to find as there is a path of destruction.

Nartha is in a large tower protected by bulligators, “Oh no” thinks Alex, “Not them again. They are going to make Alex soup out of me, with a cherry on top.”  Nartha sees Alex is by himself and thinks, “I have finally got my elusive prey!” She runs from the tower and she and the bulligators surround Alex. “Oh no, says Alex, I fell into your trap again.” Nartha sends some of the bulligators away because she is so confident that she is now going to win! She and two bulligators close in on Alex.  Soon Alex finds himself in a jail cell in Nartha’s Tower with poor piggy nowhere to be seen. Alex yells, “NOOOOO! Thinking Piggy may have died in the fire at PigTech. Nartha came to the jail to taunt Alex and tell him some more bad news, for him, but not for her. She is going to throw him into the bulligator pit where no one has ever escaped. Or, she tells, Alex, I could save you and I will tell my army that you were sick for the big day and I will keep you locked up. OR, you can call 911 and I’ll throw you in anyway.” Those are not good choices”, said Alex, “Some sibling you turned our to be.”

Alex looks over and sees his uncle Nanas and his younger siblings Crystal and George. Alex says, “Please don’t hurt Crystal, George and Nanas, and you can do what you want with me. Nartha said “Your bravery is wasted, it does not make you powerful. It makes you weak.” Alex says, “I would rather be weak than evil.”  Nartha laughs and says, “I think I will throw all of you in.” Alex says, “Nartha please, just push me in, let the others go, they have not fought you.” But Nartha says “I can wipe you all out.” And laughs maniacally. Nartha and several of the Bulligators force Alex, and the others out of the tower towards a large pit. Nartha says, “They have not been fed for three days, they will really be glad to see you.” Nartha begins to laugh again as they push their captives closer to the edge. ………………suspense………………..

Nartha is so busy with the captives, and careful to not spill the popcorn she is carrying, she did not see a funny looking snowman approaching with a baseball bat, or the hooded figure coming up on the other side with a full bag marked, bulligator chow. Before she starts to remove the Predator Mask to take a bite of popcorn when, KAPOW, Robot Snowman hits her with the baseball bat and shatters the mask, and knocked the popcorn out of her hand.

He throws the bulligater chow and the bulligaters run to the chow, Nartha also fails to see a truck driving right at the group. Kind Little Truck says, “Jump in the back, everyone and let’s take a ride.” The hooded figure runs up and grabs Nartha’s Unisailor card before he jumps in. Kind Little Truck says, “Do I get a weapon?” Hoodie Man says, “Yes, you do” and gives Kind Little Truck the Unisailor card. KLT uses the Unisailor card to blast Nartha into a nearby police station. “Bye, bye, mean lady,” he says.

They all jump in, as Nartha screams, “AAAALLLLEEEEXXXXX !!!” Not Again!”

Alex walks up and finds Aaron and says, “Hey, I’m going to leave Costa Rica and explore the Cosmos, and I was thinking, maybe you could protect the country for me as Power Monkey. Alex hands over his old utility belt.

At the after-party after the fight, everyone was very happy. Alex says, “Yippee.” Hoodie Man says, “Yippee,” Then Kind Little Truck says, “Yippee.”. (Uh oh, three yipees!) Suddenly the feel the ground shake and they hear an ear piercing “YIP” from a small dog.

Tune in next time for the new series starring Aaron, “The Monkey Legion.” Also, the book , The Unisailors” which shows a fight with Yippee The Super Annoying Barking Wonder Dog. Both are coming soon.

Epilogue:

Piggy was sitting in his cell when a large figure about seven feet tall walked in. The figure said, “Dr. Dwight Piggy, how nice to see you.” Piggy said, “What do you want, Wade?” Wade replied, “Information about a certain person named Alex.” Piggy said, Alex is gone. He went with the Unisailors and they have been gone for six months. Wade was about to walk away when he turned and said, “You are still hiding something, what is it?” Piggy said, “Alex gave the mantle of Power Monkey to some monkey named Aaron Longtail.” Wade said, “Fine, where do I find this Aaron Longtail?”

The End.