Just another night with the Moonlight Brigade.
What you bite will not be what you chew, and what you chew may be more than you have bitten.
The Wild Ones: Great Escape is the 2017 sequel to The Wild Ones: Moonlight Brigade, written by C. Alexander London.
When several residents in Ankle Snap Alley go missing, Kit and the other animals in the city realize that humans are kidnapping animals and taking them to the local zoo. Seeing no other option, Kit and the Moonlight Brigade band together to go on the most perilous mission they've ever done: sneaking into the zoo and breaking out all the animals. Along the way, Kit comes across someone very close to him, and also runs into an old enemy.
All spoilers for The Wild Ones and The Wild Ones: Moonlight Brigade are unmarked.
The Wild Ones: Great Escape provides examples of:
- Anticlimax: At the end of the book, the Moonlight Brigade, Kit, Eeni, and several escaped animals are about to fight Titus and his gang of animals. Then Jojo, a colossal polar bear, shows up and tells all of Titus' gang to run away. They do.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Titus and Preston, both of whom go to great lengths to prevent the Moonlight Brigade from breaking out the animals.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Kit and the Moonlight Brigade desire to free all the animals in the zoo because they feel like they're being held against their will instead of living freely, like all animals should be. Technically, they are being held against their will. Nevertheless, many of the zoo animals argue that they don't want to be free, because being held inside the zoo where they're constantly fed and cared for is a better alternative than living out in the wild where humans would typically shoot and kill them. Technically, humans who see certain animals outside of the zoo are hunted and killed.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Coyote leaves a puddle of piss on the ground after Jojo threatens him.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Basil the snake, who went missing in the second book, is revealed to have been captured by humans and was taken to the zoo.
- Coyote also shows up towards the end of the book, now allied with Titus looking for revenge against Kit.
- Demoted to Extra: Even moreso than the last book. Many of the side characters in Ankle Snap Alley hardly play a large role in the story at all. Even the Moonlight Brigade is shooed aside when they help Kit and Eeni break out the animals in the zoo.
- Gentle Giant: Jojo is a humongous polar bear capable of escaping his enclosure without the humans knowing. Despite this, he's a Nice Guy who tries to avoid violence whenever possible, and assists Kit and Eeni when they're in trouble.
- Genre Savvy: Jojo doesn't want to leave the zoo because he knows if he does, humans will see him as a threat and try to kill him. Given that he's a polar bear—which are frequently hunted by poachers, he has a good reason for wanting to stay.
- Humans Are Bastards: Deconstructed. The humans first come off as the Big Bad since they're kidnapping several residents of Ankle Snap Alley. But later on in the story, it's revealed that many of the animals in captivity are actually being saved instead of imprisoned, so they won't be killed by hunters in the wild.
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Preston initially comes off as a snobby, pampered creature who looks down on the Wild Ones, but still offers to aid them in their mission to free the animals. Then he fools Kit and Eeni into venturing into a snake pen, and it's revealed that he's working alongside Titus.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: London expects you to have read Moonlight Brigade before this book, because the blurb for it spoils that Kit's mother (who was presumed dead, but revealed in the last book to be alive) is being held at the zoo.
- News Travels Fast: It doesn't take long for the animals of the zoo to figure out Kit and the Moonlight Brigade broke into the premises. Which leads to several unexpected encounters.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Kit and Eeni free the hawk Valker despite everyone in Ankle Snap Alley begging them not to. He later goes on and gathers up several Fleeless animals to join Titus at the end of the book so they can fight the Moonlight Brigade.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Titus, Coyote, and the Flealess are about to get into a huge fight with the Moonlight Brigade. Then the hulking Jojo shows up and warns them to run away. All of them flee, except for Titus.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Basil and three of his snake friends appear halfway into the book, and they all spend the rest of the novel trying to eat Kit, Eeni, and their friends.
- Took a Level in Badass: Titus, in a clear inversion of the Villain Decay he suffered from the last book. Here, he's a Knight of Cerebus again who's outright trying to kill Kit and his friends.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Happens frequently whenever the animals arrive at the zoo. Early on in the story, there's a long sequence showing Kit and Eeni holding onto a car as it speeds to the zoo. At the start of the next chapter, Kit and Eeni are already back in Ankle Snap Alley.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Basil and his snake friends chase Kit and Eeni into a very hot vent. Then they slow down and fall asleep, because their cold-blooded bodies couldn't handle the temperature change and they needed to conserve energy.
