Review Comments:
Jas- El - Thanks! I'm glad you liked the Lois/Tess story, but even more so the Lois/Perry stuff. Wanted to do something a little different there and show a different take on what taking down Lex could mean. You'll have to wait and see on the cameo though, haha. But I will say, that it wasn't an Ultra-Humanite cameo, but definitely a cameo.
blaker316 - Thanks!
LoisNClark4Ever - Torture is a strong word, haha. There will be huge repercussions of what happened, but you'll just have to wait and see what those are! haha. Tess is a really fun character to write, because for me, she's kind of a, "if Lex had gone the other way" kind of character, though I certainly don't know if I'd call her a whole-hearted good guy just yet. Like Lex, she has her motives. And we see that there because she wants to run LexCorp. Yeah, I loved getting to write Lois into that situation and it's one of the many things I'd like to see a "modern take" on Superman explore. More than just, "Me can fly fast. Me break your space toy," stuff, haha. Actually issues that matter.
Superfan2 - That's certainly a real possibility. I obviously can't confirm nor deny anything without spoiling the fun, but I can say that Clark will not be the same should he survive. Lex still has a huge role to play, because as I've said in the past, he's not a villain of the week kind of guy. He's always there and he will have a role to play in what happens to Clark next. I like where your head is at, you've got some intriguing ideas. We'll have to wait and see!
Guest #1 - I guess we'll have to wait and see! haha.
Guest #2 - The long build-up was entirely unintentional, and I'm sorry about that. Personal stuff came up. You'll find out what happened to Clark very shortly, and hopefully you'll enjoy it!
Author: CaptainTightPants12
Rating: K
Disclaimer: If I owned Superman, his story lines, or any related characters, you'd be seeing this story in the pages of the this month's issue of Superman and not for free on FanFiction. Ditto any DC Comics characters or storylines.
Summary: After Barry Allen changes history to save the world, Clark Kent faces an uncertain destiny in a new world.
Chapter: #53, You Damn Dirty Ape
Author's Note: Sorry it's been so long, folks. I'll address it later. Hope you enjoy!
Clark sighed to himself. Smallville in the afternoon. It was something.
It took Lex a minute to crawl up the hillside behind him. Clark had beaten him to the top despite Lex's claims that he had run a marathon in Europe last year that only had twelve finishers. Clearly none of them grew up on a farm chasing cattle and chickens. Then again, there probably weren't any kryptonians in the marathon. Clark figured if it came up, he'd go with the chickens thing. That seemed like the more sensible excuse. "You going to make it?" he laughed.
Sweat poured from the bald head of Lex Luthor, "I... You... That... Shut up."
"Come on, you can do it," Clark teased. He held out a hand and helped Lex up and over the ridge. Lex made way for the tree that had stood on top of the hill. "It was your idea to come out here anyways."
"To look around..." panted Lex as he leaned against it. "Not have a premature heart attack."
He threw his friend a bottle of water, "You're not going to have a heart attack, Lex."
Shaking his head, Lex chugged as much as he could before coming back up for air. "Tell that to my heart. I think it's going to fracture my ribcage. You know, before it bursts out my chest. Xenomorph style."
A quick x-ray revealed that there would be nothing of the sort. "I think you're safe-"
"Luuuu-Terrrrr!"
They exchanged looks, "Were you expecting a friend to meet us up here?"
Lex shook his head as the sound echoed through the hillside yet again. In fact, he hadn't told anyone that they were going up to Miller's Bend today. He quickly pulled out his phone. He had stowed it in his back-pack because he'd lost service on the hike up, but he must have found a spot to have to receive messages because there was one from LexCorp. He scrolled through it and realized that an inmate at his Smallville facility had escaped and was moving across the countryside.
"I have no idea what that could be," he lied.
Clark nodded, "I'll make for the high ground to if I can see anything. You wait here."
Before Lex could respond, Clark sprinted off. 'How in the world does he have energy to sprint right now?' he asked himself before turning back to his phone. There was a whole write-up on the inmate, and Lex recognized the file immediately. It was the gorilla that they had brought back from Africa. Clark returned before he could think on it.
"You're not going to believe this," Clark pretended to be out of breath.
"Try me..."
He tilted his head for a moment, trying to figure out how best to say what he had saw. "It's a gorilla."
"You're kidding..." Lex tried to play it off, but the damn thing knew his name.
"No. I'm not kidding. And he's huge. Like eight feet tall."
The sounds echoed through the hillside. Clark could see that the gorilla had made it's way up near them, and they both jumped behind the tree. Clark peeked around the trunk of the tree, the giant gorilla searched for them. It's "Luuuu-Terrrrr" groans echoed again. He turned back to Lex, "Are you sure it's not a friend of yours, because he seems to know you..."
Lex sighed for a moment. Cat was out of the bag now. "Not sure I would call him a friend."
"I'm pretty sure you owe me an explanation."
He clearly didn't want to, but he was backed into a corner. Literally. "There is a tribe of gorillas in Africa. The natives said that they were smarter than other gorillas. They could build structures and communicate with humans. LexCorp adopted one of the younger ones. We've been studying it trying to understand why they are so much smarter."
"For a super soldier," Clark gave him a pointed look. "To make them smarter?"
"For a lot more than military applications, Clark," Lex rolled his eyes. "That ape could be the key to curing alzheimer's or any number of brain diseases. Despite what the press likes to report, LexCorp does more than just weapons."
Clark turned and watched the gorilla tear a tree out of the ground, "Care to explain why he's so big then?"
"He eats well. A steady diet of Smallville's finest."
"I'm sure," Clark muttered. He turned back to see the gorilla beating it's fists into the ground, cracking the ground on the mountainside with apparent ease. "I hope you guys gave him a nice name. Like Titano."
Lex shook his head, "We don't have time for jokes, Clark."
Nodding, Clark knew that he was right. He thought he could take the gorilla if he had to, but he couldn't do that with Lex around to watch. He needed to find a way to get rid of him. "You should run and get help. Try to get somewhere that you have service. I can keep an eye on it, and I've got the energy to run and you don't."
"I'm not leaving you with a wild gorilla," Lex argued.
"We don't have time for this. We need to do something about this now, before it gets down to town and something worse happens. The folks in town will be scared, and there's no telling what they'll do to stop it if it seems dangerous."
That caught Lex's attention. He couldn't afford to have this subject shot down. "Fine. But stay out of sight."
Clark waited for Lex to get down the hillside, and back where he couldn't see him any longer. He stepped out from behind the tree and approached the gorilla. "Easy now, big fella. There's no need for a fuss. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to help. I'm a friend. Do you understand? We're friends. I'm going to call you Titano, is that ok?"
It growled at him, "Luuuu-Terrrrr!"
Before Clark could react, it charged towards him. Titano was fast. Much faster than Clark had guessed. It tackled him to the ground with ease and pinned Clark by the arms. It was angry. Very angry. Grabbing onto his wrists and slinging him over his head, Titano threw Clark against the tree that he had hid behind just a moment ago.
"That... wasn't... very nice..."
A second later, it charged him and made to slam it's fists down on him like it had the ground before. Clark raised his arms to try and catch the blow, just managing to do so without being compacted into putty. "Titano... Indeed..." he grunted.
Titano tried to wrench down Clark's arms, and he managed to get out, "F...riend..." It slowed Titano for a moment until he started to push him down again. "Want... To... Help... You. Go... H...ome..."
"H...ome...?" the gorilla asked.
Clark nodded the best that he could. Titano loosened his grip a bit. "I know... That they took you away from your people. I know that feeling... I can take you home... I can take you back to your family..."
Titano stared at him, letting go of Clark's arms. "Fam...ly..."
"Yeah. Family," he nodded. "I can help you get back to your family. Back to your home. If you let me. I'm a friend."
"Fri...end..."
A smile spread across Clark's face. "Friend."
It wasn't easy getting Titano to follow instructions, but they had made it to Africa within a couple of hours. He wasn't sure how he was going to explain this to Lex. He'd have to worry about that later. Clark had only learned to fly a few months ago when he... Well, that wasn't really important right now. He didn't want to dredge up those memories. They had to make a few stops along the way. He was pretty certain that someone somewhere had seen a man flying with a gorilla in his grip, a strange sight for anyone to see. Clark was counting on people to think that person was crazy.
"Just point the way, Titano," he encouraged his new friend.
Titano looked across the plains before pointing in the direction he wanted to go. Clark did his best to hold the weight of the gorilla on his back, but even he was starting to tire out. They booked it as fast they could, and Clark's super-vision started to pick up on a pack of gorillas to the east. He put it overdrive and whipped up dust behind himself.
They skidded to a stop near the tree-line that the pack had been heading towards. "Is this them, Titano?"
Not a peep came out of him.
But there were other sounds. Clark could hear them. In the tree-line. He tried to listen and sort out what they were, but it wouldn't be necessary. Dozens of gorillas came out with spears and weapons. 'Must be the place...'
Clark eyed them nervously for a moment. He didn't think this part through. He just walked into a tribe of gorillas, and though he wasn't terrible worried that they were going to attack him, he wasn't sure they would accept Titano. He pulled Titano up in front of him, touching his chest and saying slowly, "Titano... Family... Home..."
The gorillas watched him for a moment.
"Family..." Clark patted his chest again. "Titano... Family..."
He noticed that the crowd began to part slowly. Someone was coming up from behind them. Clark tensed up for a moment as he wasn't sure what to expect. But what he saw certainly wasn't on the list that he had come up with in his mind. A greying gorilla stepped out from the pack wearing a red cape across his shoulder and chest. "Hello, Outsider," it said.
"Uh... Hi..." Clark's eyes grew big. The gorilla was talking to him.
"Thank you for returning one of our own to us, Outsider," the gorilla spoke fluently. "Welcome to Gorilla City, hidden haven of my children, all brightened by the touch of the glowing. I am King Solovar, and we have much to talk about."
Author's Note: Sorry that it's been so long. I really do feel terrible about that, especially where things were left off. I've been going through some personal stuff and leave it at that. Haven't had it in me to really get to writing this because my heart just wasn't in it, and I didn't want to put stuff out there that I didn't feel was up to par with what you've come to expect out of me. I can't promise that I'll be able to make the weekly sunday deadline, but I'm planning to. Hopefully now that I'm back and posting, I can get back into the groove that I was in where I could sit down and churn out some chapters and not have to worry about keeping a strict schedule. I've still got some stuff going on and I have some side-projects that I'm working on, not FF-related, though we'll see. I'm optimistic that I'll be able to keep posting Flashpoint on a weekly basis though. And I do apologize for just disappearing and I plan to make it up to you guys. I am very excited about what is to come, especially in the very near future, and I'm anxious to hear what you all think about it.
Anyways, what did you think about this one? Gorilla City! That's gotta be exciting, right? haha. We won't be jumping too much into all of that, so don't get your hopes up for a full blown Gorilla City storyline or anything, but I do think you'll enjoy the next chapter before we just into a new storyline. I've hogged enough of your time blathering about myself, so I'm just going to leave it at that and ask that you leave some reviews! I've missed you guys! Until next time!
