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#7

Gorilla City

By Ed Ainsworth

 

“We find you Guilty of the Highest of all Blasphemies, Kamali.”

Their voices of treason fell into whispers and eventually nothing, as Kamali's thoughts drifted away from the unavoidable conclusion of his farce of a trail, now months after his removal from Gorilla city, he recalls his past. Kamali was one of the leading Scientists in Gorilla city, a master primatologist, a man who started out as a Physician, and eventually, with the relative piece and utopian atmosphere of Gorilla City, found boredom in his roll, looking into other avenues of science and eventually into extraterrestrial sciences.

Upon an investigation beyond the limits of Gorilla city, Kamali found a fragment of rock that appeared to have advanced the life forms around it. After months and months of investigation, he found that same energy had been what evolved the Gorilla's of Gorilla city to their current forms.

Upon the release of his papers on this subject, the secret history of the city had been given to the public, it forced the government to pulp it, remove his credentials and banish him from their lands. Now, he wanders, fragments of rock, from the Meteor in a lead lined box in one of his many bads. He was thinning, although he had always been a slender Primate, he was even more malnourished than before, reaching out to Gorilla's around the world, but met with silence from all fronts.

Now, he wandered, looking through the Jungles across the world for creatures like him, giving them the opportunity to prove themselves, as he was just about to reach his next destination, the Jungles of Borneo.

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“It's a fairly recent thing, and slightly morbid really.” Susan said to Congo Bill, formerly a big game hunter, Congo Bill's mind was now trapped inside the form of a Golden Gorilla, something that fascinated Susan. It wasn't necessarily jarring for her to consider it really, a Gorilla who could talk – It made more sense that it was a person trapped in a Gorilla.

“With the death of that Solovar, who tried to get Gorilla city into the United Nations, I discovered my love not only for big apes, but also for all Primates. I got into Primatology, and I've traveled the world, writing papers and doing research on Great Apes, Pseudo-Primates and Monkeys.”

The great golden Gorilla held out a massive hand in front of her face, pressing the index finger of his other hand against his mouth.

“Shhh.” He said quietly, his small brown eyes darting around.

Through the undergrowth, the duo could see two great apes, one a Gorilla, which Susan noted shouldn't be in this part of the world, holding a box in front of him, a box that looked like it was made of metal, and the other an Orangutan, crouched, and looking curiously at what the Gorilla had in the box.

“This is..Unprecedented.” Susan began, before the Congorilla clamped a massive hand over her face.

“Watch.” He whispered deeply.

The Orangutan picked up a fragment of glowing rock form the box, and lurched backwards, it's long arms twisting and clamping onto it's head, as it dropped the rock. The Gorilla carefully picked the fragment up with a pair of tweezers and placed it back inside of the box. Congorilla growled slightly under his breath, dropping down onto his haunches, and turning away from the spectacle. He knew the Gorilla, or at least the look and dexterity of it.

“Why is the Gorilla doing that? Whats wrong with the Orang?” The Congorilla sighed, since turning into his form, Bill had lost interest in conversation with normal humans. He just didn't seem to relate or care about them anymore. They were so impatient.

“Ssh.” He replied to her. The Orang sat up, scratching underneath it's chin, and leaning forwards to the Gorilla.

“My god.” It said.

“SHIT!” Susan screamed, as the Congorilla scooped her up into his arms, and loped away from the scene into the Undergrowth. He rolled his eyes as he swiped her off her feet – Why was this such a big deal for her? She got into this line of work because of a talking Gorilla who wanted to bring Gorilla City into the United Nations – Whats so strange about a talking Orangutan?

The other Gorilla was there in a matter of moments, aiming the pistol around the brush.

“We need to leave.” Kamali said to the Orang, as he pulled the orange fured primate from the brush he was poking his way through. The Primates hand was inches from Susan's foot. She pulled it away slowly, shaking slightly.

“My boat isn't far from here.” The two creatures loped away, as Susan's eyes threatened to pop out from their sockets. Congorilla eventually released Susan from his grip once her could no longer hear or smell the presence of the other apes.

“Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit, holy shit.” Susan fell onto her knees and scrabbled around for some paper.

“Calm.” Congorilla said, placing a massive hand on her back.

“But they spoke?”

Congorilla's expression changed to one thats slightly baffled.

“I can speak.” He said, tilting his head to the side.

“What I have to say is nothing strange than what just happened.”

“You're different.” She responded, her hand on her chest to feel her heart-rate.

“Why?” He asked, he knew the answer, but didn't want to appear smug.

“You're a human mind trapped in a body of a Gorilla, they are apes that can speak.” She responded, running a hand across her sweat tainted forehead and through her hair.

“How do you know that for sure?” He quizzed, dragging his knuckles across the ground.

“Well...” She paused for a moment, the logic kicking in and knocking the edge off the Adrenaline.

“Okay, you got me there.” She said, sitting up and staring into the opening where the two primates had sat.

Congorilla sighed, and leaned forwards to Susan.

“Solovar was the king of Gorilla city, I think the Gorilla might be from there, but I don't know about the Orang. He might be a native and this guy's done something to him.”

Susan's eyes lit up, as she clapped her hands around the Golden Gorilla's head kissing him on the lips.

“Genius, and I would imagine you know where Gorilla city is, right?”

“Why, because I'm a Gorilla? That's Specisist, we're not all from the same damn place, you know?”

“Hellloooo, Primatologist? I know that. I just thought you'd have visited there.”

“Well, don't assume, alright?” He bared his teeth and sat down heavily, resting his massive hands on his knees, an oddly human gesture.

A few moments of silence passed, and the Congorilla got up quietly, with a sheepish Susan behind him.

“W-Where are we going?”

“Gorilla City.”

Susan silently pumped the air with her fists to not distract or upset Congorilla.

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“Holy shit.” Susan's words once again turned towards expletives, as she dropped onto her knees. She felt the tears well in her eyes.

“Oh dear.” Congorilla replied in equal astonishment. The technological trees of Gorilla city had been felled, the shield that once held the city secret had been dropped and the city itself was a smoldering ruin, with what appeared to be very little life inside it's walls. Susan clamped her hands over her mouth as the tears rolled down her cheeks. Not just for the lost opportunity to do some very important and valuable research, but also because of the sheer scale of the destruction, the complete loss of life.

“All those Gorilla's just...” She choked herself off, catching her face in her hands as the tears just pooled in her palms. Congorilla put his hand on her back gently, looking across the verge to the ruins.

“What could have done this?” He asked, loping forwards slightly to try and get a better look.

As if in answer to her question, a large Gorilla powered suit of armor crashed through the undergrowth, training it's weapons on the duo. Congorilla raised onto his back legs, letting loose a roar that caused Susan to slap her hands around her ears.

The laser Mauser hit the ground with several closely packed bursts of energy, knocking the Congorilla off his feet, and Susan onto her back. As she hit the ground, she felt the world spin and go black.

Congorilla pulled himself, up only for the massive mech to bare down on him.

The mech simply raised it's massive hand and swatted the golden gorilla onto his back, pinning him into the ground with it's massive metal fingers embedded into the soil.

“Grodd will want to see you.” The Gorilla spoke with a snarl, half met between hatred and amusement.

“Crap.” Was all Congorilla could muster as he was yanked from the ground by the massive metallic fist, and carted towards the ruins of the City. Hanging loosely from the giant robot fist, he looked back towards Susan.

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Pulled from her position in the ground, and tossed into a wooden bared cage, Susan rolled onto her sides, looking to the few Gorilla's who were trapped in there with her. She recognized the Congorilla, arm broken and bleeding badly from the wounds across his body, as well as the beaten King, held up by the other Gorilla's in the cage, stroking his face and his blood caked fur.

“God...Are you...” She said, reaching out for the king.

“Don't address the king, Kid.” Congorilla advised, pointing for her to turn the other way.

“We're doomed...How did Grodd get this powerful?” One Gorilla asked, looking to the others. Susan continued to look ahead away from the Gorilla's though she could just see from the corner of her eye.

“Grodd has always been powerful, it seems that now he has more sway than before.”

“I don't think..Was Grodd the Gorilla we saw the other day?” Susan asked. The others became silent. Congorilla rolled his eyes.

“Susan...Shut up.” He said starkly, his eyes trained on the other Gorilla's.

“What other Gorilla?” One of the others asked, he had slightly gray fur around his features. Moving towards Susan and turning her head forcibly to look at him. She looked down at the ground, and then back up at him.

“We saw a Gorilla...talking to an Orangutan, and he gave him this little stone and the Orang started talking too.” Susan's eyes were wide as she felt the fear bubble up inside of her.

“Kamali.” Was all the King could manage, before he drifted into a pained sleep.

“Kamali.” The other Gorilla's said in unison.

“Who's Kamali?” Susan asked, looking at the Gorilla who manhandled her.

“He is a Scientist, or was. He preached that our evolutionary advancement should be offered to all other Primates. He was a heretic. We feared they would grow uncontrollable, Chimps especially. They make war you know.”

“I know.” She answered, her hands sweating more than her face, as if it wasn't able to react to the situation out of fear.

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Silence had taken over after Kamali was mentioned, and most of the other Gorilla's had gone to sleep. Captivation clearly didn't agree with them. Susan sighed deeply, only to hear the footfalls of something nearing her. She froze with fear.

Was this it? Was this the end of Susan Goodall? Her eyes darted from side to side, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on, but it was too dark to see.

She looked up before taking a double take. It wasn't a Gorilla at all. It wasn't what she expected either. Stood before her, wearing yellow tinted goggles, and a gaudy was a chimp, crossing it's arms and looking down on her.

“Role reversal. How quaint.” It took a moment to stair at her, and cross it's arms before it grabbed hold of the bars of the cage and yanked them apart. Clearly the Chimp had it's own strength as well as augmented strength, Susan would have thought the Gorilla's would have already tried that trick.

“W..Who are you?” Susan managed, as the Chimp offered her a hand.

“My names Ook Ook.” The chimp offered, as Susan took his hand and cocked an eyebrow.

“Ook Ook?”

“Nah. I'm just kidding with you, that's a little Primate to human humor.” The Chimp smiled, and threw Susan over his shoulder.

“The others will be back for the rest of you, but we need her first, okay?”

“What do you need me for?”

“Well, we need a human representative for the Justice League of Primates, stupid.”

“Oh Christ.”

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TO BE CONTINUED IN ANIMAL MAN 17