No, I wrote that last part correctly. The Grandmaster's info is a little late.
The Man-Ape is an old Black Panther baddie, last seen sometime in the 80s, and now believed to be extinct in the wild, hurhur. Aanyway.
The alarm went off at seven, as it always did. Chas stayed in bed another five minutes, as he always did. Eventually, he got up and switched it to the radio.
" – and reports indicate that the victims were attacked by a monstrous ape of some kind. One of the survivors described it as a 'white gorilla'. Officials from the Manhattan Zoo have reported there are no signs of break-in or escape last night, and the police have said they suspect animal smugglers – "
Chas stopped halfway through his sock drawer. He'd dreamt of a white gorilla last night. And the night before. No, it was a coincidence, it had to be.
He went to make his bed, and found small clumps of short white hair around the pillow. Fur, he thought. No, it was just – stuffing, or something.
He got into the kitchen just in time to see his father go out the door. "Chas, there you are," he said. "Just so you know, I'll be back by seven, there's dinner in the fridge, look after your grandmother and – "
" – remember that you love me. Right," said Chas fondly. His father said that every day. "See you, Dad."
His father was a computer technician for a tech firm in Manhattan. It was a good job, and this was a good city, but the times Chas treasured were the holidays. Then, they went to visit relatives in Wakanda. Chas had been born in America, and thought of himself as such, but his heritage would always be there, like roots.
"Mornin' Grandma," he said as she came into the kitchen. She was old, old enough to remember impoverished days in mud huts, before Wakanda had modernized. Sometimes she talked about her childhood.
"Ah Charles," she said, "I slept ill last night. Did you hear the radio? A White Gorilla attacked some people in Manhattan last night!"
"I heard Grandma. It's a pity, but so what?"
"Ah boy, don't you know your heritage?" She pulled a cats-head pendant from under her clothes and held it in her palm. "The people of the Wakandas have always believed that there are two spirits in the forest. One, the noble Black Panther, protects us and strengthens us. But the other, the terrible White Gorilla, attacks us and tries to destroy us! But worse, its evil can spread. It can try to turn a man into something like itself. If he is strong, he will recover. But if he is weak, he will be cursed by the moon goddess to become the beast, and be driven out by his own tribe!"
Chas said nothing, but his blood ran cold. It had been a full moon last night. A few weeks ago, he had gone to the apes' enclosure at the Manhattan Zoo. One of the White Gorillas there had got loose and bitten him before it had been caught. It hadn't been deep, and the keepers had apologised. And he hadn't told his father because he'd promised he wouldn't go.
As her left the apartment, he wondered what he was going to do.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and he was sharing the corridor with a blue-skinned man. "Whoa! What the hell are you?"
The blue man smiled. "Who I am is the Grandmaster, a cosmic player of games. But what I am is someone who can help you with your condition."
"What condition?"
"Don't play the idiot with me, boy. You're under the curse of the White Gorilla, a variant of your Earthling lycanthropy. Every full moon, your condition will worsen, until one day you'll go mad and remain the Ape permanently . However, treatment is possible. I have come into possession of this." He held up a bracelet woven from strips of leather. "With this, you can suppress the Ape-Curse for the rest of you natural life."
"And the price?" said Chas. He was no fool. There was something going on here.
"The curses magic will make you a powerful foe in a fight. I have a need for a young man such as yourself. Therefore, you will fight a battle for me, and I will give you the bracelet."
"Done," said Chas. It wasn't the perfect solution, but it would do until he found one. He and the man vanished in a flash of light.