[color=red][b][u]Levi the Wonder Lion[/u][/b][/color] --------- Hello. While my real name is Chad Browning, you might know me by my stage name for Circus Delights, Chad the Coyote Cannonball. (This is why my G-52 codename is Cannonball Coyote.) I used to be a soldier in the Canadian Army, which is where I first met Cecil (Cogent Cat), and we've been friends ever since. One unique assignment I was given during that time was going undercover at a Hollywood stuntman training school, which helped me learn a few tricks of the trade while exposing the enemies trying to infiltrate the school. Learning those tricks ultimately helped me secure my position as the stunt performer for Circus Delights. (The enemies turned out to be those idiotic tabloid terrorists; we just weren't aware of it being them at the time because they were operating under a different banner; our commanding officer, Super C, made the title a forbidden topic.) I wasn't counting on making a living being shot from the cannon, but I did need to find work after my career in the Army ended, and the circus needed a helping hand because it was struggling, so I said yes. Flash forward to last year, and I had successfully flown out of the cannon for the 500th time. (I think I'm up to 525 now, or somewhere around that mark.) I wouldn't have it any other way, though; I feel patriotic when I do the act. It's why my flight suit is red with a red helmet and goggles, and there is a white maple leaf on each side and on the front of my helmet. On my chest, the outfit spells out "CANADA" in white letters, with another maple leaf in the upper right hand corner. (Ask Gerry Gurdetha, the bear that flew out of the cannon for COTS, or Circus of the Superstars, and he'll tell you the same thing. All his outfits had patriotic decorations and the letters "USA" on it.) The cannon I fly out of also has "CANADA" written on a red background, with maple leaves to decorate it. (Gerry's cannon read "USA" in blue letters on a white background. Bully the Bullet, the bulldog cannonball act for the Colton Bros. Circus, also uses a patriotic motif for his outfit and cannon.) When the circus marches in a big parade, I'll be at the front carrying the Canadian flag. Willie the Wolf, our resident high diver, does this with me. It also isn't uncommon for the crowds that come to see us wave Canadian flags during the parades or the show itself. (If we're performing in the United States, the crowd will wave American flags, and we'll find a way to employ the American flag in our shows. This follows the example that COTS set when it toured internationally. We have been wanting to, but the only place we could travel to so far was the Toppet Kingdom, the land of Leo the Tiger's friends Blue and Pink.) Since Landon and all the performing acts also sing as a chorus, my singing range is bass-baritone. (I can hit some of the lower notes, allowing Landon to go for the higher or middle notes.) -------------- However, that isn't what we're here to discuss, although it is important that everybody knows that. What needs to be said is this: as everybody knows, Levi the Mountee Lion has made a radical U-turn for the better, and the people of Canada are regretting they mocked him because IC3 punished them severely for it in the form of people getting divorced, disowned, and written out of the wills. Luckily, Lyon the Northern Lion, the other parallel that is now our Prime Minister, saw this coming, so he signed some legislation designed to help the people get their lives back on track. Now they're all farmers keeping all of us fed and happy. (Donald Trump would do the same thing in the United States after a discussion about it with Leo the Patriotic Lion, and the U.S. is experiencing a similar thing.) Most of the regrets come from the fact nobody knew the whole story behind what was happening, since the original intention was for Levi to be a clown in the Wolfton Bros. Circus, a circus whose ringmaster was a wolf that treated his employees like crap. Though no one knows his real name, people do assume his last name was McNasty because his younger brother was Drill Sergeant McNasty, who intervened with the ringmaster's plans and insisted on doling out all the punishments to Levi himself. The ringmaster never got a chance to argue with his brother, because by that point, he had been found out, arrested, tried, and executed for breaking magical cardinal law. (Nobody knows what that is, but in Eterna, the world that is home to the white kitten, Zanta, and his organization, the D-19, breaking magical cardinal law gets you the death penalty, no questions asked.) Thus, when Landon came to the rescue and recruited Levi (and the rest of us the wolf ringmaster had enslaved) into Circus Delights, the original act Levi was to perform was toned way down to minimize as much insult to injury as we could, because the original act would have begun the same way, but would have gotten more sadistic over time, given how much higher Levi's high dive would have been, and the wolf would have had him stuffed into a cannon and shot straight upward, so that he should die upon impact. (This is an indication that the wolf and his brother had superpowers of their own, which were powerful enough to overturn the immorality curse that CNG had given Levi and many others, but the royal family of Eterna managed to overrule those powers with their own. When the wolf found out about this, he threw in the condition that Levi be drummed out with "The Rogue's March.") ---------- Today, Levi works as the Canadian ambassador to the United States, because Maple Marcher chose Japan instead, since he had no tolerance for Donald Trump's crude sense of humor. (I don't blame him; he's a Krieglandonian by birth, and the Krieglandonian felines rarely, if ever, made jokes. They were as dead serious as it gets. Some of them still don't trust the human race as a whole because of Trump, but don't tell him I said that, okay.) "It's a good thing I've dealt with Trump before," the Mountee Lion commented, "so I have an idea of how to work with him this time. He held the office when my first stint as Prime Minister ended, and was still there for the beginning of the second one." However, the C.I.D.F. had studied some of Levi's clown antics as a way to confirm a hunch of theirs, which was this: when Levi's blunder in ceding Machias Seal Island to the U.S. forever (albeit for the wrong reasons) happened, IC2 put all its time and efforts into mentally and physically torturing him so that it could kill him. Its efforts wore it out, and it eventually committed suicide, for lack of a better way to put it (just as CNG did). When it died, however, it managed to sneak in one last body chemistry alteration. This is when Leo and all his parallels discovered that when learning a new skill (or learning something new in general), they could easily pick up on it, and in as little as one week, they'd look like they'd be doing it for years. This is how Levi had no problems doing any of the clown acts, but to test the hypothesis, the circus did one special show when traveling to Washington, D.C., where, for one night only, the people were invited to be dazzled and amazed by the heroic acts of Levi the Wonder Lion. (At this point, Levi had finished all 25 of his clown shows and was playing trumpet in the orchestra, but he did agree to help the C.I.D.F. with this hypothesis. Also, this was before Lyon the Northern Lion was elected Prime Minister; it was still Rainier Belrose at the time. It boggles my mind to know that Lyon only beat Rainier by three votes. Count them. Three!) The special show would still have the marching band playing, but it would have Levi performing three special acts normally done by the others: the high diving act, the tightrope walking act, and a variation of my cannon act. Other acts would come in between, but our clown troupe, the Delightful Doodads, would not have Levi performing with them. Levi spent a couple of weeks training with us to get ready for this experimental show, spending some days doing more diving with our high diving expert, Willie the Wolf, and learning from me how to fly out of the cannon properly. Our tightrope walkers are a brother-and-sister team of white tigers named Ivan and Irene, and they helped him with the tightrope. --------- While setting up for the show, however, Landon announced that as a new clause in the contracts everybody had signed, nobody was to pie Levi in the face on purpose, especially if he was in uniform or was wearing his special suit and tie combination, colored red and white to match the colors of our flag. (The clowns couldn't pie Landon, me, or some of the other ones either; just themselves.) One of the clowns had an unfortunate case of losing control of his unicycle, and a pie hit Levi in the face by accident. (Fortunately, he was wearing a t-shirt and blue jeans.) Even though it was a rehearsal, it still attracted a crowd (as it was an outdoor performance), and they still burst into loud laughter and applause. Levi was a good sport about it, though, and said, "At least you didn't do it while I had my good clothes on." Then parts of it hit his mouth, so he went ahead and tasted it. "Mmmm; that's tasty," he said. "Are you okay?" Milton, the tiger that was the head clown, asked. "I think our latest recruit here is a bit more klutzy than we imagined." The hyena attempting to the ride the unicycle that resulted in Levi being it felt so bad for the Mountee Lion as a result of this accident. To show this, he threw the last pie on himself. "I'm fine," said Levi, and Landon confirmed that it was an accident, so it was not a contract violation. "New flavor?" "Well, we used fruit pies when you had to be one of us. With the nature of the acts we're doing now, we found it easier to use vanilla creme pies." As Levi was being cleaned up, he took another bite. "There must have been a mix-up," he said. "I think this is actually a banana creme pie. It still works, though, given the nature of what you were attempting." Super C was present because he was helping the C.I.D.F. with their research (and because their policy is that they tell him everything they know, since he's also Caticonian, even though he's the G-52 boss), so he took the nature of asking, "Does the act require vanilla creme pies?" "Not necessarily, but that's what was on the order when we placed it," said Milton. "We don't know if it was a system glitch, or if somebody switched delivery trucks on us as a prank. It couldn't be those tabloid terrorists, could it?" "No, I don't think so. They would have used weaponry because all they want to do at this point is kill Levi." "What good would that do them if they did kill me, Chief?" Levi chimed in after being doused with water by another clown. (This was just to help clean the pie off his face.) "No idea," said Super C. "I guarantee you that's how Louis the Merciless would've felt had he killed Cripto. He'd come to the conclusion that he'd have nothing to live for because his goals were all completed." --------- The accident with the pies turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for it revealed another missing piece of the puzzle: while IC3 was focusing on the negative side of everything in its quests to punish humanity, there was a positive supernatural force out there that was helping us to combat the effects of it, because its protection and blessings ensure that all the circus members (myself included) will always be able to perform or practice without ever getting injured or fatigued, even if something were to go wrong. I can testify to this because there have been a couple of times where the safety net broke, ensuring I couldn't land safely after a flight from the cannon. Being a trained stunt coyote from those days at the Hollywood training school helped me escape it, though. (Landon opted not to count that flight; I've been grateful to have over 500 successful flights in my career, but these only count if I land safely on the target, or complete the task at hand. He still got the audience to cheer for me as I went ahead and took a bow, and the ceremonial finale proceeded as normal.) -------- That evening, it was time for the big show. It began as it always did with Landon singing "O Canada" as the orchestra played it, and his beautiful baritone voice was glorious to listen to, no doubt. We were in Washington, D.C., however, so we followed it up with "The Star-Spangled Banner." Then the drums rolled and the cymbals crashed as Landon made his opening announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, and children of all ages, welcome one, welcome all, to the greatest furry spectacular you'll ever see, with the most dazzling, astounding, jaw-dropping, and mind-boggling feats ever known! This is Circus Delights! Tonight, for one night only, we have a very special guest performer with us. No longer is he the clown prince of instant decision making, for he has seen his errors and repented. He has evolved into a miracle of modern mammoth mysteries, but that is not a bad thing. Why? He is the pinnacle of perseverance. The king of courage! Canada's bravest lion that ever walked its streets! How about a big welcome for the super strong, super brave, Levi the Wonder Lion?" Levi walked out to grand fanfare as the crowds broke into applause, waving their Canadian and American flags all the while. "You got this, Levi!" I said. ---------- "Gaze with awe and wonder," Landon continued announcing with that huge smile on his face. (It wasn't acting; he really loves his job, and he's one of the happiest yellow labs you'll ever meet. He's true blue. The real deal.) "The astounding feats of Levi the Wonder Lion are unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Yes; it is true that he had his faults, but he has redeemed himself, and he's going to show it here tonight! For the first of our special demonstrations, prepare to have your minds blown as he attempts an even higher high dive than the dive he did before!" All the while, Levi climbed the ladder to the top of the diving board, helped by the band's stirring tunes and Landon's speech. He had done high dives before because that was part of his clown act, but here he was dressed as a proper high diver. He did show some nerves, but he easily got over it with each passing moment. As soon as he got to the top, he slowly approached the end of the board, and went through the routine Willie taught him, which was done to help him focus and stay calm, as well as figure out how to dive so that he would splash down safely. (Note that the pool he was diving into wasn't one of those tiny pools like it typically is in old cartoons; even when Levi had to be a clown, he was diving into a bigger tank than that.) I think that Mortimer Mertzon, our percussion prodigy who goes by the codename Tenacious Timpanist, was more nervous than Levi was, because the last time Levi had to dive, he made the timpani drum roll too tense, making Levi a nervous wreck and scared to jump. (Levi went ahead and jumped for the sake of keeping the audience from getting anxious.) He had spent hours on end working on this so that the rolls would sound more motivating and encouraging, not intimidating. This time, he managed to do it the way he should have done it, and it showed when Levi kept himself at the posture of a soldier at attention. When the lion raised his hand to indicate he was ready to dive, the animals playing snare drum (including Benjamin Andrews, a.k.a. Snare Bear), joined in the roll. Then the lion made the dive, doing spectacular somersaults and other flips, making sure to land paws first (instead of head first) so that he wouldn't get hurt. The roll didn't conclude with a big bass drum hit and cymbal crash until Levi splashed down. The trumpets played a fanfare once he emerged from the water. "Levi! Levi! Levi!" the crowd chanted. ------------ The second act, Levi's tightrope act, was actually a combination of the tightrope walking and the daring acrobatic feats of the Flying Fabulosos, our amazing team of bobcat acrobats. ([b]NOTE:[/b] while COTS, or Circus of the Superstars, Rolf the Wolf's circus, is no longer in business, their acrobatic troupe, the Bulldog Blue Stars, still perform as their own unit independently, or even guest star with our circus or the Colton Bros., or another circus. Here, they were just V.I.P. guest attendees of the special event.) There were no drum rolls here; instead, everything was done in sync to the other music the orchestra was playing. Levi took each step while balancing the pole, and made sure not to rush it. All the while, the acrobats did spectacular flips over his head without touching him or the pole. He went back and forth a few times, and then the final part saw him turn sideways, facing the audience, dropping the pole onto the safety net (which an acrobat promptly grabbed), and then did an incredible spin move, with his toes never leaving the tightrope, launching into other amazing gymnastics-style moves, using his hands to grab the rope. (It was as if he was doing the high bar in the Olympics.) At the end of the final flip, he was standing on the rope again, and he was balancing one male acrobat on his right hand, and one female acrobat on his left hand. "I bet that's going to go viral, huh?" Willie said to me. "I hope somebody's recording it." "Anything with Levi involved is going to go viral," I replied. "This special show is doubling as a press conference, I should point out, because this is to benefit the C.I.D.F.'s research. And as we just saw from that tightrope act, Levi didn't act on impulse. He took his time and thought it through, and he pulled it off." ----------- In between the first and second acts, we had the clowns perform, and in between the second and third acts, we introduced the people of Washington, D.C. (and the government) to the Sultans of Strength, five white lions that make up the strongman act of our circus. They did everything from traditional weightlifting to juggling one ton weights with ease. Though they're part of our circus, they also had experience participating in strength athletics (think of the World's Strongest Man competition), and they were able to use that to their advantage here. ---------- Then it was time for the big finale, which was Levi being shot out of the cannon. This was a rare time we'd see him with boots on; he typically likes to pad (go barefoot), which he had done for the diving and tightrope acts. To make it easier, he was wearing the same stuntman uniform I wear, which is a red jumpsuit with slight variations for the different seasons of the year, with a white maple leaf in the upper right hand corner, and the word "CANADA" in white, with the "C" in "CANADA" in the top left corner, and each letter diagonally downward and to the right of the previous letter. The helmet that comes with this has a pair of goggles with it, and the helmet has a white maple leaf on each side where a human's ears would be, and another leaf on the front where the forehead would be. (My helmet has some holes in it in order to allow my ears to still be seen because I'm a coyote. Levi's helmet, however, covered up the whole head, including his ears.) The cannon Levi flew out of on this occasion is the same cannon I fly out of; it is red with the word "CANADA" in white letters on each side of the cannon, and a maple leaf on either side of the word (one to the left of the "C," and another to the right of the last "A"). Landon made the most of his elaborate introduction, and the band reinforced it, especially with the timpani parts to the music. One could tell just how seriously Mortimer took his job when listening to the music. One could also tell that this the act Levi was the most nervous about, but he chose to stay focused on the task. (He had rehearsed how to approach the act with me and the 15 Labrador retrievers [5 black, 5 chocolate, and 5 yellow] that make up Chad's Cannon Crew, so he had full faith that everything was going to be all right.) Instead of a safety net, however, Levi was going to fly into a tank of water, although he wasn't going to fly through a ring of fire like I sometimes do. (Anytime I do, I fly into a tank of water as well.) "Why the tank of water?" Super C asked me. "It's what the cruel wolf would have used," I said, "except he would have had fiery rings around it because he wanted to kill Levi. Of course, what his drill sergeant brother would have done would have been much worse, believe me." "I agree." ------- Levi climbed inside the cannon and adjusted himself so that he was in the correct position before putting his goggles on. We waited until he gave us a thumbs-up signal, which was Morty's cue to begin the timpani roll here. "Hold your breaths, ladies and gentlemen," Landon spoke into the microphone. "Be amused and astounded as Levi the Wonder Lion flies like the true superhero he has made himself out to be!" (Landon was exaggerating, of course, but ringmasters have a history of using hyperbole in their elaborate introductions.) "So if you're ready, then count down with me!" Benjamin and another wolf began the roll of the snare drums to add to Mortimer's timpani as Art prepared to hit the bass drum once for effect, which he would do at the exact moment of launching the Mountee Lion from the cannon. Frank (Furious Fox) prepared to crash his cymbals, although he gulped at the thought of the act going wrong. Meanwhile, the audience followed Landon's instructions to count with him, but they only said the numbers. Each of the people in the crowd were worried, but they counted anyway. "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1!" "FIRE!" Landon yelled, and the big "BOOM!" from the cannon sounded (with smoke effects to add to the effect) as Levi flew outwards and the drums cut off. Remembering what I taught him, he had adapted a Superman-style pose with both his arms outstretched in front of him, and it was the most serious and determined expression we had ever seen on his face. (I thought he was snarling, about ready to let out a roar.) He then remembered to somersault a couple of times so that he could safely land in the tank of water, and he had no problems making the splash. Note that the tank was designed so that everybody could see him inside the water, so that Frank would immediately crash the cymbals afterwards. After the splash and cymbal crash, the band played a triumphant fanfare as the crowds erupted into loud applause while waving their flags, and as Levi exited from the tank and climbed the ladder safely down to the ground, Landon, still with a huge smile on his face, belted out excitedly, "Yes! Yes! YES! LET'S HEAR IT FOR LEVI THE WONDER LION!" Then he said to himself, "I'm as happy as a little puppy!" Levi took a bow, and as he did, balloons, streamers, and confetti dropped from above as the band launched into Samuel's rendition of the "Win the Lot" cue from the 1980s version of the television game show "$ale of the Century." (He said he wished he had written an original music score for my 500th launch, but he fortunately remembered he had seen repeats of the show, where somebody won the lot. He liked the music so much, he wrote the arrangement, and he used it for my victorious 500th launch. The band liked it so much, they began using it for the closing ceremonies and other events involving a massive drop of balloons, streamers, and confetti.) One of my cannon crew threw him a towel to dry off as Landon made his closing remarks, and the performers all gathered together for one final bow. ([b]NOTE:[/b] because it was in Washington, D.C., we used red, white, and blue balloons, streamers, and confetti. The children present also got to take home some of the balloons.) --------- After the band had stopped playing, our conductor, Samuel P. McGrath (Courageous Conductor) walked up to Morty and said in his Scottish accent (because he alternates between that and his normal voice), "I think it's fair to say you redeemed yourself, laddie!" "You could say that," Morty replied. "I felt better about the whole thing that time. However, the real hero here is Levi." ------------- "How does it feel to be promoted from circus clown superstar to proper circus superstar?" Landon asked Levi afterwards. "A bit exhausting, but totally worth it," Levi replied, "but from now on, I'm happy just to be a trumpeter in your band, as well as when I get to sing. Tonight wasn't a good night for that, though." "No. Let your voice rest for a bit." ------------- Later, Levi was dry again, but continued to wear the stuntman outfit (although with the helmet off) as he gave another press conference, and Super C stood at his own podium with microphones. (The band played some more tunes in the background.) Most of the questions annoyed the two of them, because they were the same questions others had been asking. It wasn't intentionally testing the Cat of Steel's patience, but it was. "I get so tired of explaining it because I do not want my recruits dwelling on their past, or talking about it if it is not absolutely necessary," he said, "and all everybody is doing is tempting them to do those very things. It makes you come off as ungrateful from my perspective. However, I will answer your question by saying that I was angry with Levi when the island blunder happened, but that wasn't where the majority of my anger was directed. The majority of my anger was at you, the public, given the massive amounts of you out there that were constantly harassing Levi on social media until his French counterpart, Leonce the Romantic Lion, posted his own post telling you to stop it. Then IC3 began to do its dirty deeds." "Yes; I needed to be taught some hard lessons," Levi echoed, "and they're lessons all of us, even the Chief, can learn and apply to our lives. 1) Think before you speak; this was always a problem for me. 2) Do not let the sun go down on your anger; that was another big one for me. 3) Do not put honor before reason. That was the biggest problem. Even though CNG and IC2 had been controlling me like a puppet, I still could have resisted it, but I didn't. As a result, I upset my people when I said the island was yours forever, and now the United Nations has finalized it and notarized it with a wax seal." He held up a picture of the document confirming this. The duo then told the rest of the story, including the elements of the Wolfton Bros. Circus and its ringmaster, and, more importantly, Drill Sergeant McNasty. They couldn't speak about Eterna because of a sacred promise Super C had made to the D-19, so they referred to it as "a distant galaxy." Eventually the press got all the answers they wanted, and the people of Canada began to relax. Now they didn't have a problem with us losing the island because they were focusing on all the good things Levi did as our PM, all of which Rainier continued, and all of which Lyon would continue. Afterwards, Levi turned to Super C and said, "And I hope that's given you all the answers you wanted, Chief." "Indeed it has," Super C replied. "All the parallels, not just you and Leo, can easily pick up a new skill and learn it in record time, even if you don't use it more than once. If you have a long gap, you'll still be able to do it as if you've been doing it forever. We saw this when you had to be a clown, and we saw it again here, because you did all the events correctly. You had me a bit worried on the cannon flight, though." "I'm glad I don't have to do that again. That's for sure. I think that's the closest I've ever gotten to being an actual superhero with flight powers, a bit like you." "I don't need a cannon to take off, but yes; I agree with you. I forgot to ask you something, though. How much of the clown act that you did matches what the cruel wolf would have had you do?" "I don't know; that's a good question. He definitely would have had me doing the firefighter simulation sketch that climaxed with me diving into the sticky sweet stuff. I think it would have started the same way afterwards, but he would have had me doing more sadistic things. If everything went according to plan, I would have died on impact from the failed high dive. That was Plan A. Plan B was to shoot me from the cannon straight up so that I'd die from impact there. If that didn't work, then there would be the scene of me being drummed out with the 'Rogue's March' in the background. We had that discussion already, though." "We did. The fact the Drumbums are going to use it in the extremely unlikely circumstance is what led me to decide the G-52s should also use it." "Do all Drumbums qualify as allies to the G-52s if they aren't a G-52?" "They do, and they don't have to take the oath, just as all parallels of you don't have to take the oath." "That would have been my next question." -------- The next morning, as a thank-you to the circus, the Trump Administration gave us a tour of the White House, although they said to Levi, "Now you've been here before, but it might look slightly different from last time." "I think so," Levi said. "The last official visit I made to this place was when Leo had the position, so the Oval Office looked slightly different than this." To make it easier on themselves, the tour order was the same order in which Leo and his administration had showed guests around the White House, and so the last thing we got to see was the bowling alley that was part of it. We didn't bother to bowl, though; we let some other folks do that instead. The band played stirring tunes on the White House lawn as a thank-you for the tour, while the rest of us (including me) took in some sights and sounds we weren't familiar with, considering we're from Canada. (The band would do the same on their own terms later on.) -------- D.C. later loaned us from facilities so that we could record some more music. Most of it was just the orchestra playing, but because the main performers also sing as a chorus, we also recorded our own take on Orff's "Carmina Burana." At a later session, we even sang some barbershop music, since we were looking to expand our horizons beyond traditional circus band music. (The official barbershop chorus of the circus has Levi as the tenor, the leader of the Flying Fabuloso as the lead, Landon as the baritone, and me as the bass.) Landon has a bit of experience playing piano and trombone, and so he volunteered to play trombone on these recordings. He's still our beloved ringmaster, though, and we know that suits him best. (If the circus band ever starts playing jazz music, then we may have him play the trombone at times. After all, Rolf the Wolf was a jazz trumpeter as well as the double duty hero of COTS, being both the ringmaster and the drum major/bandleader of the circus. Our circus found it easier to have two separate performers in these roles, but it is just one reason why Rolf is the GOAT of ringmasters.) --------- As an additional thank-you to all those who had previously served under Levi's or Rainier's premiership (or both), as well as those in Lyon's administration, the circus gave all parities involved free circus tickets for life. RTC Toys, the toys and games company that Landon's family founded (and Landon himself does have some investment in the company), sent these same folks free gift sets involving plushies and plastic action figures of those in the circus. The only thing it didn't have was Levi dressed as the diver, tightrope walker, or daredevil, probably because nobody had any idea he was going to do that stuff. The company got to work making those figures, though, and would mail them to all parties free of charge. In a way, parents could use these toys to teach their children Levi's redemption story in full. (The figurines of Levi included in these gift sets include several of him as a clown, one with him in his band uniform with his trumpet, and one of him wearing his trademark red and white suit-and-tie combination, because he wears this when he sings, as well as to help American and other foreign audiences identify him easier.) In addition to the animated series in the works, authors are also writing children's books based on Circus Delights (some of which will be adapted for the television show), which tell the stories of Landon, band icons such as Samuel, Benjamin, Morty, and the major acts, like me. Most importantly, they'll teach the kids to learn from Levi's mistakes so that they don't repeat them, but they'll also put emphasis on how there was more good than bad that came out of Levi's two stints as Prime Minister, and ultimately, how both of them were put together to make something even greater happen. (The past of the church Levi began attending after he converted to Christianity and was baptized frequently preaches on this topic, emphasizing how the Lord takes the good and bad and makes them work together for His glory. We saw proof of that here, because while Levi blew it when he ceded the island, it ultimately turned out for the better that he did, because of how it saved the circus from extinction, so to speak, and it ultimately got us named as an intangible cultural heritage of Canada, or ICH. More importantly, we finally found a way to fight back against IC3, even though it wasn't going to go away anytime soon.) ---------- There's plenty of YouTube videos up and running if you want to see Levi the Wonder Lion in action again. For now, I wish all you the best, and thank you for your time. If you haven't been to a show of Circus Delights, come on up (or down) and see us. You'll be so glad you did. Bye, now. ----------- [color=white][b]THE END[/b][/color]