Ah, Poor Man’s two pets, Mele (A sassy teenage guinea pig) and Chomper (Poor Man’s obedient shih-tzu), are having a relaxing day… because Poor Man is nowhere to be seen… wait, scratch that. Poor Man appears to be storming inside his house and stuffing everything in the closet.
“They’re coming, they’re coming!”, cried Poor Man, “Hide the knives, protect your wives, Mele and Chomper, hoard the gold and lock the windows”.
Poor Man then set down a crate and picked up a hatchet. “And I’ll take care of them once and for all”, said Poor Man with a grim smile.
Mele and Chomper picked up the gold, but instead of hiding it they walked out the back door and all Poor Man heard was a car motor running. “Wait, they can’t drive”, noted Poor Man right before he heard the sounds of a car crashing, and what followed was a knocking on the door and some snapping.
“Man, I hatchet get ready!”, shouted Poor Man, “Get it, hatchet, have to, eh, I hatchet forget you”.
Poor Man then grabbed the doorknob. “One, two”.
The door then slammed open on Poor Man, revealing a bunch of zebras standing on their hind legs snapping their hooves. “We’re cool”, chanted the Chief, “We’re, hey where is he?”.
The door then creaked open, revealing a smashed Poor Man. “Oh, dude, sorry about that”, apologized the Chief, “We’re cool, we’re bad, give us your money”.
Poor Man then leaned in on the closet door and calmly said, “Sorry, got nothing for you here”.
At that moment, the door finally gave way, releasing a landslide of stuff on the living room. And when Poor Man finally emerged, he noticed that there wasn’t as much stuff out as he put in. Then he noticed a big bag being hauled by one of the Zebra Gangsters, so Poor Man flung himself towards the bag and grabbed it, begging, “Please, I beseech you, do not take my stuff, I’m not very smart, I got a waffle problem, my grandma stopped giving me loans, just because she’s dead, selfish, please, give me my stuff!”.
The chief then motioned the other guys to stop. “I’m sorry, I think we’ve forgotten how things go, let’s start from the beginning, hi, I’m the leader of the zebra Gangsters, there’s Isaac, the brains of the operation, oh, and over there, remember Doug, yes, he has an eating problem, oh, don’t forget Clio, the crazy one”.
Clio picked up Poor Man’s hatchet and chewed on the end like a beaver, and after he was done, all what remained was a little twig. “So, everyday, we come and take what you have, you watch us leave, you cry, blame it on your grandma, and we start again, so, to keep this cycle going, I’m going to take this bag back to our lair, and, we’ll be back tomorrow, ok”.
So, the Zebra Gangsters left, and Isaac popped his head in the door. “By the way, you might need a new hatchet”, Isaac commented before he left with the others.
Poor Man then cried, and he reached for some tissues, but realized the Zebra Gangsters stole it, then he shouted, “CURSE YOU GRANDMA!”.
Poor Man then thought about it, and then he said, “I had it; this is the final straw, because they stole the others, I’m tired of the same old depressing routine, and I’m going to do something about it”.
The next day, Poor Man was sitting on the floor. “I got to do something else about it, and now I’m out of straws, how am I going to drink my coke now? But, how, and what?"
Just then a TV commercial came on. “Hm, didn’t know I still had my TV, might as well listen”.
“Do you have any striped mammals robbing you every day?”, asked the television, “Well, it’s your lucky day, with the new security system. It’s as smart as an average human and will follow your orders, and keep unwanted guests out! Call this number”.
Poor Man looked at it, and then he said, “Wait, that’s the price! How am I going to get that much money!?”.
Just then another commercial turned on. “You want to pay for a security system so you can get a bunch of robbing zebras out of your life? Well, not to worry thanks to Chicken’s Bank, where you can get the money, and all that’ll cost you is YOUR SOUL!”.
Poor Man stared at the television, and then he said, “Affordable”.
At Chicken’s laboratory, Poor Man walked in. “Hello, I was expecting you”, said Chicken, “Allow me to take your coat”.
“Will I get it back?”, asked Poor Man.
“Allow me to take your coat”, Chicken repeated a little more forcefully.
Poor Man ponderously surrendered the coat, then asked, “So, do you have the money?”.
“After, you sign for it”, demanded Chicken, “And hurry, you’re attracting flies”.
So, Chicken then rolled out a contract on a table and gave Poor Man a pen, so Poor Man clicked it on, then his attention was captured by a huge gas tank. “Hey, what’s that?”.
“No! Step away, it’s highly explosive!”, warned Chicken, but it was too late.
Meanwhile, Snake King was dragging Panda King around the fields with a leash around his neck, then Snake King said, “See, look, it’s beautiful outside, stop complaining about that trophy of butter, look, the clear blue skies, the lush green meadows”.
Just then, there was a huge explosion, which killed all the crops and fields and sent smoke to the air. Panda King glared at Snake King, and then Snake King said, “Please don’t sue”.
Back at Chicken’s lair, or, what’s left of it, Chicken was all covered with smoke and dust. “My house, my lair, it’s ruined, destroyed, history, you destroyed my baby!”, cried Chicken.
“Hey, that safe blew up”, noted Poor Man, then he picked up the money inside, “Thank you for the discount Chicken”.
“Wait, it’s not free, come back, it’s not like you need your soul or anything!”, begged Chicken, “I need some way to pay for a new lair!”.
So, Poor Man strolled along the streets with his new security system, and set it up. When it was done, it was a chip with a camera that wonders around with the wire connecting it to the chip, and when turned on, the camera lens turns into a big, red eye. So, with a big and booming voice, the camera said, “Greetings father, I am C-508, but they call me Rover, I am now your humble servant, give me your first order, for that is my only request”.
“Awesome”, cheered Poor Man, “Um, I would like a stack of waffles”.
“Waffles don’t come in stacks master”, replied Rover, “However, I do have the ability to create multiple waffles and put them on top of each other”.
“Isn’t that a stack?”, asked Poor Man.
“WAFFLES DON’T COME IN STACKS!”, roared Rover as a mechanical arm popped up, ripped the counter top off of the kitchen, and hurled it across the room.
“Ok”, said Poor Man carefully, “Abort, you’re mission in life is to make sure no one comes inside this house, no one, no matter what I say, no one shall ever enter this house alive!”.
“I shall grant your request master”, replied Rover, then the floor lifter up, causing Poor Man, Mele, and Chomper to fall out of the house.
“Hey, what was that for!?”, scolded Poor Man.
“My mission in life is to make sure no one enters this house, so that is my duty”, explained Rover.
“Yes, but I didn’t mean me and my family”, replied Poor Man.
“No matter what you say, I must grant your request”, Rover stated firmly, “That is what you said my mission in life was”.
Poor Man was now starting to get stressed. “Look buddy, I don’t have time in my life for this, I got a job which I seem to never go to, these Zebra Gangsters are mugging me, and I’m not going to put up with you locking me out of my own house, so I’m going to march right in, and turn you, a hunk of rusty metal and nails, off”.
Then, the roof popped open like a soda can, and a countless amount of missiles popped out, all pointing at Poor Man and their laser lock system proves it. “Uh, I mean”, stuttered Poor Man, “Go along with your business”.
All the missiles then turned off, and the door got trapped with a metal wall, as the windows with it. “You can do that, yet you can’t make a lousy stack of waffles”.
So, Poor Man sat down on the front lawn for a few hours, and then he heard some snapping. “Oh, great”, mumbled Poor Man.
The chief then said, “We’re cool, we’re bad, give us your money, hey, why are you sitting outside?”.
“Well, I tried installing a security system to keep you out of my house and out of my life for good, but the system misunderstood me and now I’m locked out of my own house, I’m done for, I got nowhere else to go”, explained Poor Man.
“Ah, well, first of all, this if for your wise idea”, said the Zebra Gangster chief before he punched Poor Man in the face, and after Poor Man fell backwards, the chief said, “And second of all, we’re going to help you”.
“We are?”, asked Isaac.
“Yes, if the guy can’t get into his house he can’t get our future stuff”, explained the chief, “Now, we’re master criminals, we broke into the White House! We go to the nearest park, and we dig a tunnel till we go under the house, and then we emerge inside the house and Clio here will destroy the robot”.
“Yes, good plan, so, you guys do all the digging, emerging, destroying, and robots, while I go pick out a tombstone for your grave”, replied Poor Man, “The system, he has missiles, and mechanical arms, and a bunch of other stuff the military probably doesn’t even have, we can’t just dig! By the way, you will be doing all of the digging right?”.
“Don’t worry, we’re zebra gangsters, have we ever failed a robbery?”.
“Uh, there was that, no, wait, there was the time when you, succeeded. Ok, I’m trusting you, I’m doing to die someday”, concluded Poor Man.
“Good, meet us at the park at”, planned the chief, “Right now, we got nothing else to do”.
So, as Poor Man and the zebra gangsters were strolling towards the park, Isaac informed the chief. “Sir, according to my chart, our chances of success is 2% chance out of 100, survival is 1.578%, we can’t just jump into this, wait, and this is a purse”.
“Don’t worry, we’ll let him go first”, assured the chief.
“Yea, but”.
“So, how much stuff are we going to take?”, interrupted Doug.
“Hey, guys, we’re here, let’s dig!”, announced Poor Man.
So, they dug a tunnel, it took a long time, but with the Zebra Gangster’s hard core effort and Poor Man’s ‘supervision’, they finally made it… 6 yards. “We’re going to need a little help”, concluded Isaac.
The chief then got a grim grin on his face. So, everybody sat back as they were driving a miner truck. Now, they were starting to emerge through the floor, and when they finally came inside the house, they were shocked with what they found. Everything was covered with wire and metal, and in the middle of the living room was a pod with electricity being sent through it, and when it opened, it was a robot with a screen for a mouth and two smaller screens above the main screen for eyes. It had mechanical arms and wheels to move. “Rover!”, shouted Poor Man.
“Yes, it is me”, said the robot, “I have created a live-action model of myself, now, get out or die!”.
“Uh, is there a third choice?”, asked Poor Man.
The Zebra Gangsters then together tackled Rover, but Rover gained strength and knocked all the Zebra Gangsters across the room, leaving them unconscious. So, a frightened Poor Man slowly backed away, and then he said, “Wow, somebody has been working out, yea, I better go”.
Poor Man made a break for it, but Rover extended his arms, grabbed Poor Man’s legs, and dragged him towards the living room. “I am under orders, I shall take you and use your bones to make new robots!”.
“I didn’t order you to do that!”, shouted Poor Man
“Oh, you didn’t”, said Rover, “Uh, well, TOO BAD!”.
So, Rover stuffed Poor Man inside a chair, tied him up, and pressed a button, and from the roof, a giant drill was starting to drop. “Any last words intruder!”.
Poor Man tried getting out, but it was double knotted. He decided that how much he struggles, it isn’t worth it. But, hope comes once again as the chief wakes up, and charges at Rover again. “Go Zebra Gangster go! Spit in that Rusty Bucket”.
The chief punched Rover, sending him on his back, but Rover got up and tackled the chief. “Hey, yea, dude, the drill is getting pretty close here, just saying”, noted Poor Man, “And, is that Planthro, my cabbage patches you use that name brand!”.
The chief then berated Poor Man. “Hey, I’m trying my best here! It would help if you shut up!”.
But while the chief was babbling, Rover snuck behind him with a sword. “So, yea, I’ll untie you in a minute, now, I got to focus or, he’s right behind me isn’t he”.
The chief looks behind his back, and he thought that Rover was going to slaughter him, but instead, he whacked the chief with the handle, knocking him out again. “You know what, I give up”, said Poor Man.
But, an idea started forming inside his head. “But, I got one final request”, said Poor Man.
“Well, you are my creator, so, sure, what is it”, replied Rover.
“I would like a stack of waffles”.
Just then one of Rover’s eyes started to twitch, then his wheels shifted back and forth and his arms spun around in circles, then he lost it and started destroying everything. He destroyed the drill right when it was about to hit Poor Man, and he broke all of his creations and busted through the walls, retreating far away. “Whew, that was a close one, right guys”, commented Poor Man, but when he looked at the zebra gangsters, they were fast asleep.
“Well, ok, you guys stay there, sweet dreams, and I’ll go get the cops, good afternoon!”.
So, Poor Man ran through the hole in the wall, right when Rabbit King came to visit. “Hello Poor Man, I’ve come to say…”.
When he came in the house was a wreck, the zebra gangsters were asleep, and it was a mess. So, Rabbit King just slowly backed away, and ran. Just then the zebra gangsters woke up and grabbed a bag. “Ok guys, the plan worked, take as many stuff as you can”.
So, the zebra gangsters put many stuff in their assigned bags and woke up, right when the house collapsed. Man, Poor Man is not going to be happy to see this!
The End
“They’re coming, they’re coming!”, cried Poor Man, “Hide the knives, protect your wives, Mele and Chomper, hoard the gold and lock the windows”.
Poor Man then set down a crate and picked up a hatchet. “And I’ll take care of them once and for all”, said Poor Man with a grim smile.
Mele and Chomper picked up the gold, but instead of hiding it they walked out the back door and all Poor Man heard was a car motor running. “Wait, they can’t drive”, noted Poor Man right before he heard the sounds of a car crashing, and what followed was a knocking on the door and some snapping.
“Man, I hatchet get ready!”, shouted Poor Man, “Get it, hatchet, have to, eh, I hatchet forget you”.
Poor Man then grabbed the doorknob. “One, two”.
The door then slammed open on Poor Man, revealing a bunch of zebras standing on their hind legs snapping their hooves. “We’re cool”, chanted the Chief, “We’re, hey where is he?”.
The door then creaked open, revealing a smashed Poor Man. “Oh, dude, sorry about that”, apologized the Chief, “We’re cool, we’re bad, give us your money”.
Poor Man then leaned in on the closet door and calmly said, “Sorry, got nothing for you here”.
At that moment, the door finally gave way, releasing a landslide of stuff on the living room. And when Poor Man finally emerged, he noticed that there wasn’t as much stuff out as he put in. Then he noticed a big bag being hauled by one of the Zebra Gangsters, so Poor Man flung himself towards the bag and grabbed it, begging, “Please, I beseech you, do not take my stuff, I’m not very smart, I got a waffle problem, my grandma stopped giving me loans, just because she’s dead, selfish, please, give me my stuff!”.
The chief then motioned the other guys to stop. “I’m sorry, I think we’ve forgotten how things go, let’s start from the beginning, hi, I’m the leader of the zebra Gangsters, there’s Isaac, the brains of the operation, oh, and over there, remember Doug, yes, he has an eating problem, oh, don’t forget Clio, the crazy one”.
Clio picked up Poor Man’s hatchet and chewed on the end like a beaver, and after he was done, all what remained was a little twig. “So, everyday, we come and take what you have, you watch us leave, you cry, blame it on your grandma, and we start again, so, to keep this cycle going, I’m going to take this bag back to our lair, and, we’ll be back tomorrow, ok”.
So, the Zebra Gangsters left, and Isaac popped his head in the door. “By the way, you might need a new hatchet”, Isaac commented before he left with the others.
Poor Man then cried, and he reached for some tissues, but realized the Zebra Gangsters stole it, then he shouted, “CURSE YOU GRANDMA!”.
Poor Man then thought about it, and then he said, “I had it; this is the final straw, because they stole the others, I’m tired of the same old depressing routine, and I’m going to do something about it”.
The next day, Poor Man was sitting on the floor. “I got to do something else about it, and now I’m out of straws, how am I going to drink my coke now? But, how, and what?"
Just then a TV commercial came on. “Hm, didn’t know I still had my TV, might as well listen”.
“Do you have any striped mammals robbing you every day?”, asked the television, “Well, it’s your lucky day, with the new security system. It’s as smart as an average human and will follow your orders, and keep unwanted guests out! Call this number”.
Poor Man looked at it, and then he said, “Wait, that’s the price! How am I going to get that much money!?”.
Just then another commercial turned on. “You want to pay for a security system so you can get a bunch of robbing zebras out of your life? Well, not to worry thanks to Chicken’s Bank, where you can get the money, and all that’ll cost you is YOUR SOUL!”.
Poor Man stared at the television, and then he said, “Affordable”.
At Chicken’s laboratory, Poor Man walked in. “Hello, I was expecting you”, said Chicken, “Allow me to take your coat”.
“Will I get it back?”, asked Poor Man.
“Allow me to take your coat”, Chicken repeated a little more forcefully.
Poor Man ponderously surrendered the coat, then asked, “So, do you have the money?”.
“After, you sign for it”, demanded Chicken, “And hurry, you’re attracting flies”.
So, Chicken then rolled out a contract on a table and gave Poor Man a pen, so Poor Man clicked it on, then his attention was captured by a huge gas tank. “Hey, what’s that?”.
“No! Step away, it’s highly explosive!”, warned Chicken, but it was too late.
Meanwhile, Snake King was dragging Panda King around the fields with a leash around his neck, then Snake King said, “See, look, it’s beautiful outside, stop complaining about that trophy of butter, look, the clear blue skies, the lush green meadows”.
Just then, there was a huge explosion, which killed all the crops and fields and sent smoke to the air. Panda King glared at Snake King, and then Snake King said, “Please don’t sue”.
Back at Chicken’s lair, or, what’s left of it, Chicken was all covered with smoke and dust. “My house, my lair, it’s ruined, destroyed, history, you destroyed my baby!”, cried Chicken.
“Hey, that safe blew up”, noted Poor Man, then he picked up the money inside, “Thank you for the discount Chicken”.
“Wait, it’s not free, come back, it’s not like you need your soul or anything!”, begged Chicken, “I need some way to pay for a new lair!”.
So, Poor Man strolled along the streets with his new security system, and set it up. When it was done, it was a chip with a camera that wonders around with the wire connecting it to the chip, and when turned on, the camera lens turns into a big, red eye. So, with a big and booming voice, the camera said, “Greetings father, I am C-508, but they call me Rover, I am now your humble servant, give me your first order, for that is my only request”.
“Awesome”, cheered Poor Man, “Um, I would like a stack of waffles”.
“Waffles don’t come in stacks master”, replied Rover, “However, I do have the ability to create multiple waffles and put them on top of each other”.
“Isn’t that a stack?”, asked Poor Man.
“WAFFLES DON’T COME IN STACKS!”, roared Rover as a mechanical arm popped up, ripped the counter top off of the kitchen, and hurled it across the room.
“Ok”, said Poor Man carefully, “Abort, you’re mission in life is to make sure no one comes inside this house, no one, no matter what I say, no one shall ever enter this house alive!”.
“I shall grant your request master”, replied Rover, then the floor lifter up, causing Poor Man, Mele, and Chomper to fall out of the house.
“Hey, what was that for!?”, scolded Poor Man.
“My mission in life is to make sure no one enters this house, so that is my duty”, explained Rover.
“Yes, but I didn’t mean me and my family”, replied Poor Man.
“No matter what you say, I must grant your request”, Rover stated firmly, “That is what you said my mission in life was”.
Poor Man was now starting to get stressed. “Look buddy, I don’t have time in my life for this, I got a job which I seem to never go to, these Zebra Gangsters are mugging me, and I’m not going to put up with you locking me out of my own house, so I’m going to march right in, and turn you, a hunk of rusty metal and nails, off”.
Then, the roof popped open like a soda can, and a countless amount of missiles popped out, all pointing at Poor Man and their laser lock system proves it. “Uh, I mean”, stuttered Poor Man, “Go along with your business”.
All the missiles then turned off, and the door got trapped with a metal wall, as the windows with it. “You can do that, yet you can’t make a lousy stack of waffles”.
So, Poor Man sat down on the front lawn for a few hours, and then he heard some snapping. “Oh, great”, mumbled Poor Man.
The chief then said, “We’re cool, we’re bad, give us your money, hey, why are you sitting outside?”.
“Well, I tried installing a security system to keep you out of my house and out of my life for good, but the system misunderstood me and now I’m locked out of my own house, I’m done for, I got nowhere else to go”, explained Poor Man.
“Ah, well, first of all, this if for your wise idea”, said the Zebra Gangster chief before he punched Poor Man in the face, and after Poor Man fell backwards, the chief said, “And second of all, we’re going to help you”.
“We are?”, asked Isaac.
“Yes, if the guy can’t get into his house he can’t get our future stuff”, explained the chief, “Now, we’re master criminals, we broke into the White House! We go to the nearest park, and we dig a tunnel till we go under the house, and then we emerge inside the house and Clio here will destroy the robot”.
“Yes, good plan, so, you guys do all the digging, emerging, destroying, and robots, while I go pick out a tombstone for your grave”, replied Poor Man, “The system, he has missiles, and mechanical arms, and a bunch of other stuff the military probably doesn’t even have, we can’t just dig! By the way, you will be doing all of the digging right?”.
“Don’t worry, we’re zebra gangsters, have we ever failed a robbery?”.
“Uh, there was that, no, wait, there was the time when you, succeeded. Ok, I’m trusting you, I’m doing to die someday”, concluded Poor Man.
“Good, meet us at the park at”, planned the chief, “Right now, we got nothing else to do”.
So, as Poor Man and the zebra gangsters were strolling towards the park, Isaac informed the chief. “Sir, according to my chart, our chances of success is 2% chance out of 100, survival is 1.578%, we can’t just jump into this, wait, and this is a purse”.
“Don’t worry, we’ll let him go first”, assured the chief.
“Yea, but”.
“So, how much stuff are we going to take?”, interrupted Doug.
“Hey, guys, we’re here, let’s dig!”, announced Poor Man.
So, they dug a tunnel, it took a long time, but with the Zebra Gangster’s hard core effort and Poor Man’s ‘supervision’, they finally made it… 6 yards. “We’re going to need a little help”, concluded Isaac.
The chief then got a grim grin on his face. So, everybody sat back as they were driving a miner truck. Now, they were starting to emerge through the floor, and when they finally came inside the house, they were shocked with what they found. Everything was covered with wire and metal, and in the middle of the living room was a pod with electricity being sent through it, and when it opened, it was a robot with a screen for a mouth and two smaller screens above the main screen for eyes. It had mechanical arms and wheels to move. “Rover!”, shouted Poor Man.
“Yes, it is me”, said the robot, “I have created a live-action model of myself, now, get out or die!”.
“Uh, is there a third choice?”, asked Poor Man.
The Zebra Gangsters then together tackled Rover, but Rover gained strength and knocked all the Zebra Gangsters across the room, leaving them unconscious. So, a frightened Poor Man slowly backed away, and then he said, “Wow, somebody has been working out, yea, I better go”.
Poor Man made a break for it, but Rover extended his arms, grabbed Poor Man’s legs, and dragged him towards the living room. “I am under orders, I shall take you and use your bones to make new robots!”.
“I didn’t order you to do that!”, shouted Poor Man
“Oh, you didn’t”, said Rover, “Uh, well, TOO BAD!”.
So, Rover stuffed Poor Man inside a chair, tied him up, and pressed a button, and from the roof, a giant drill was starting to drop. “Any last words intruder!”.
Poor Man tried getting out, but it was double knotted. He decided that how much he struggles, it isn’t worth it. But, hope comes once again as the chief wakes up, and charges at Rover again. “Go Zebra Gangster go! Spit in that Rusty Bucket”.
The chief punched Rover, sending him on his back, but Rover got up and tackled the chief. “Hey, yea, dude, the drill is getting pretty close here, just saying”, noted Poor Man, “And, is that Planthro, my cabbage patches you use that name brand!”.
The chief then berated Poor Man. “Hey, I’m trying my best here! It would help if you shut up!”.
But while the chief was babbling, Rover snuck behind him with a sword. “So, yea, I’ll untie you in a minute, now, I got to focus or, he’s right behind me isn’t he”.
The chief looks behind his back, and he thought that Rover was going to slaughter him, but instead, he whacked the chief with the handle, knocking him out again. “You know what, I give up”, said Poor Man.
But, an idea started forming inside his head. “But, I got one final request”, said Poor Man.
“Well, you are my creator, so, sure, what is it”, replied Rover.
“I would like a stack of waffles”.
Just then one of Rover’s eyes started to twitch, then his wheels shifted back and forth and his arms spun around in circles, then he lost it and started destroying everything. He destroyed the drill right when it was about to hit Poor Man, and he broke all of his creations and busted through the walls, retreating far away. “Whew, that was a close one, right guys”, commented Poor Man, but when he looked at the zebra gangsters, they were fast asleep.
“Well, ok, you guys stay there, sweet dreams, and I’ll go get the cops, good afternoon!”.
So, Poor Man ran through the hole in the wall, right when Rabbit King came to visit. “Hello Poor Man, I’ve come to say…”.
When he came in the house was a wreck, the zebra gangsters were asleep, and it was a mess. So, Rabbit King just slowly backed away, and ran. Just then the zebra gangsters woke up and grabbed a bag. “Ok guys, the plan worked, take as many stuff as you can”.
So, the zebra gangsters put many stuff in their assigned bags and woke up, right when the house collapsed. Man, Poor Man is not going to be happy to see this!
The End