1 The Cosmic Kong Creation

His head ached, badly. He felt so numb, like his other senses had stopped working. His eyes opened slowly and closed again. He couldn't discern what he was seeing, neither did he try to. He was scared for the first time. Never had he gotten so close to danger and this was probably the end of the road for him.

He groaned. The headache was slowly reducing but it was still the worst pain he had ever felt.

"Garfield Green! Welcome back to the real world!", a voice said, jerking his dead hearing sense back to life.

He would recognize Eduardo's voice, even in the dark. Yea, you don't need light to hear anything. He raised his back and looked up. His vision still wasn't clear but he was obviously locked somewhere. "What are you doing? Let me go", Garfield got up on his feet, still dizzy.

"I already let you go, once. Fortunately, the lab rat returned for the experiment", Eduardo replied, smiling mischievously. "I was actually looking for someone to test this stuff with"

"Test what? Leave me out of your experiments"

"Oh. You should have left yourself out of my experiments", Eduardo said, turning round, dramatically. "But you were too much of a curious idiot. What can I say? Your wish is granted"

"I'll expose you and all of these. They'll burn down your company before your eyes", Garfield said, confidently, before his eyes caught the unclear reflection of something big and black in the glasses that surrounded him. He turned around, slowly. "Oh my God!"

"Be careful. If you wake him up now, we'll need another lab rat. So shut your mouth!", Eduardo said.

Garfield's heart was pounding. "What do you want with me? What are you going to do?"

"Ok. Let me put it straight to you so you'll be ready for what's coming", Eduardo said, rubbed his palms, and grabbed a chair to seat down. "I created a formula to boost a human's intelligence beyond levels ever imagined. I believe this would make the lab rat think ten times faster than an average intelligent person. The lab rat would be able to learn, assimilate and understand things in split seconds. It also guarantees a photographic memory; a lifelong lasting memory. I tested it on one of ours. Unfortunately, the idiot wasn't strong enough. His brain exploded".

"You killed him", Garfield said, with loath. "I knew you were desperate."

"Yes, desperate to make a change. This kind of intelligence would help humanity... After the first three fails, I decided to test it on an animal; a dog. It was a partial success. The dog had a human's kind of understand. That intelligent dog gave us the idea of creating an artificial broca area in an animal's cerebrum and gave other possible changes that could grant itself an ability to talk. However, the dog needed more nutrition than we could provide. It died, earlier than I had predicted... I decided to make some changes to the formula and the best lab rat to bring it to life would be an animal with muscle mass; that's the king kong behind you. Not only does this formula increase it's intelligence and brain function beyond comprehensible levels but it builds it's strength and muscle mass, more like manipulation of his body size; that is deflating and inflating. That's the last part of the project so don't ask for a proof. I'm not sure if it works, yet."

"What am I needed for?", Garfield asked.

"You're another lab rat. You're supposed to be the final final stage. The thing is, creating an intelligent animal isn't enough. I figured out I can control it, not with a remote or speech, but from the inside", Eduardo said. "Normally, I think a cocoon might be needed but let's test this first. If it fails, we'll create an artificial cocoon"

"What are you going to do to me?"

"Shh!", Eduardo put a finger across his lips. "Don't wake Kong. I'm only putting you in the gorilla to work on how to get out of the gorilla. If I get a formula to separate you, and a measure of how much control you have over the gorilla, I should know how to go in and out of the host creature, without having to strain myself."

"And if I'm put in the gorilla and you can't bring me back, what happens?"

"Goodbye to you, then", Eduardo said and got up, sharply. He turned to his lab workers. "Start up the engines. The Kong is waking up".

The gorilla growled, getting up slowly. It was just a bit taller than Garfield. His heart was pounding heavily.

Eduardo clicked a button. The glass disappeared or turned invisible. "Now".

A bright ray shot out from the machine, hitting Garfield's chest. Garfield screamed, as his veins shown like they would break out of his skin. He kept screaming till he seemingly disappeared and the ray proceeded and hit the gorilla, who growled loudly. They turned off the machine, a few seconds later.

Eduardo clicked the button and the glasses appeared again. Garfield was no where to be found while the gorilla fell on it's face, almost stunned. It got up, slowly, and looked at it's palms, legs and body, like it was feeling different. It growled, loudly, and slammed it's heavy arms on the grounds of the cage.

Eduardo walked to his x-ray instrument and looked into it. "Just as I expected", he said to himself.

An image of Garfield's smaller figure could be seen in the gorilla's ribs. He seemed to be in a relaxed state. According to Eduardo, Garfield was already connected to the gorilla's brains and muscles. In other words, Garfield should be able to control the gorilla and what they had to do was to find a way to separate them. Still staring at the x-ray image, Eduardo noticed the slow expansion of the smaller figure. Garfield's body was probably getting mutated by the chemicals in the gorilla's blood. He grew bigger till his size was equal to the gorilla's and the two bodies became one, without a notable difference. Eduardo had his mouth gaping, he wasn't expecting the expansion of the figure inside, neither did he imagine or think it was possible. He anxiously waited for what was going to happen. Would the two creatures break out of each other and die? Or would the gorilla explode?

Looking out of the x-ray, the gorilla had grown huge and filled the cage. "What have you done?", the gorilla growled, angrily.

Eduardo was amazed by his creation; the gorilla had spoken like a man. Maybe Garfield had taken the wheels and was now in control of Eduardo's masterpiece. He was more terrified than amazed.

The cage had been built to hold the heaviest and largest creature he could imagine. The gorilla, however, had filled it up, already. Judging by the size and the possibly infinite strength of the gorilla, the cage might be a massive fail. He stepped back, slowly, as the gorilla fumed. The gorilla bumped the glass with his knuckle. The glass cracked and spread quickly. The gorilla only pushed gently, bringing down the glasses, and jumped out.

The lab workers began to shoot at him, indiscriminately. The mutation might have made it's skin, impenetrable. He wasn't getting weak, neither did he feel the bullets. The gorilla's eyes turned green and so did the eyes of everyone in the room. They turned their weapons and began to attack themselves. Eduardo had escaped, successfully. He wasn't among those caught in Garfield's amplified hypnosis. Garfield was already in control. Eduardo was his target, surely. The amount of terror he had read from Eduardo, before he destroyed the cage, was enough to keep him panicky for a long time.

He stared at his huge hands, again. He was literally a gorilla; an excessively large one. He looked around and saw all of Eduardo's formulas; everything that created him and everything that's intended to separate the two creatures from each other. He shook his head. It was wrong. Nothing in the lab was capable of setting him free from the curse. He just knew it, though he didn't know how, he was pretty sure. He growled again and increased his size, almost breaking the roof of the building with his head. He crouched, effortlessly breaking through the walls, as he angrily searched for Eduardo. Whatever told him he could break the nearly indestructible glass with his knuckles, it also told him he could hypnotize ten people at the same time. Whatever told him none of the formulas or instruments in the lab would work in separating him from the gorilla, it also told him Eduardo was still in the building.

He moved faster and faster, sniffing. Every scent his nose picked up accurately created a mental picture of where it was coming from. Immediately he picked up the human scent he was looking for, he charged and moved faster. Slamming his hands on the ground, the earth shook and Eduardo tripped. Garfield fumed, walking towards him slowly, with a lot of hate sitting on his face.

"Garfield! I can separate you from the gorilla", Eduardo said, quickly. "If you kill me now, you'll remain this way, forever"

"Your calculations are wrong. We can't be separated. My body's already mutated. We have become one!", Garfield replied, snarling and slamming his hands on the ground. "If you die, I'll know you're not smiling somewhere while my fate is doomed"

An explosion was heard, from where the lab workers were facing off. The fire spread fast and covered them up. While Garfield's new thick skin lessened the pain, Eduardo caught fire and burned up.

★

"As weird and horrific as it all seems, it's nice to meet you all but I have to get my ass out of here", Jeremy said, walking slowly towards the door. "I have been weird, all my life, but yours is award-winning"

"I'm guessing we deserve claps for that", Prof Adkins said. "You can walk through that door if you desire but you can't leave Somnolence. That's why we need your help; the same reason you need ours, too."

Jeremy knew what the professor was trying to say. He didn't understand why and he didn't believe so. The others also stared at the professor, like they weren't aware of what he was talking about. "I see what you're trying to do. No", Jeremy said and pressed down the door handle. It opened. "It opened? Thank God!"

"Wait, what? You weren't expecting it to open or what?", Greg asked, condemning Jeremy's sense of reasoning with his facial expression.

Jeremy ignored and walked out, slamming the door behind him. As if the door were soundproof, he couldn't hear anything. It was awfully silent. Not even the breeze or anything was making a sound. Everything seemed still. Jeremy walked on the streets, looking around. While wondering if he could get an idea of where he was and how to get out, a car appeared from nowhere, driving at high speed and almost hitting him, as he fell backwards, quickly. The car's honk had broke into his ears, so suddenly, like his sense of hearing had taken a break, the whole time.

He was quickly distracted from the strange car, as the noise of a protest could be heard. Turning around, he could see a large number of people with placards and weapons. They shouted and chorused whatever their demonstration was for. The writings on their placards was too blur for Jeremy to read. He couldn't hear what they were saying, either. The voices were too indistinct. The protest noises only lasted for a few seconds before gunshots scattered them. Jeremy could see cops shooting at the protesters. The cops had a similar dull glow in their eyes and a stance that could make one suggest they were robots, like they were being controlled or under some sort of spell. Jeremy was going to run, as two protesters ran towards him. They caught up with him and, rather than pushing him aside, one of them ran right through him. He stared at himself. 'Am I invisible? or intangible?', he asked, in his mind.

They shot repeatedly, till about half of the protesters had laid dead on the ground and the rest escaped. It was horrifying to look at. Jeremy stayed back to see what would happen, afterwards. A blurry creature, in human figure, walked to some of the bodies. It would pull a body up and put it's mouth closer to that of the body it was holding, then it would suck something out of it and the body would drop back on the ground. He wasn't sure but Jeremy had a feeling the bodies become lifeless, immediately the creature sucked whatever it sucked. The creature did the same to many of the gunfire victims and left the rest where they laid.

The creature zoomed at Jeremy. It was so fast that Jeremy couldn't run. He closed his eyes, startled by the suddenness, but he felt nothing. Opening his eyes slowly, the streets were empty, once again. It was as silent as it had been before the strange car appeared. His heart was beating rapidly. He needed guidance or he would go insane.

He ran back, towards the house, as if he expected another frightening demon to show up. He wasn't sure of the door to stop at. They all looked the same. He stopped at one and pressed down the door handle. The door opened and his eyes fell on a black man, stirring his coffee in a small cup. He wasn't wearing a shirt. He had a red handkerchief, tied around his head. The man looked very familiar to Jeremy but there was no time. "Sorry", he said, quickly, and moved back outside. The question of who the man was was asked again and again in his head, scanning the contacts on his head as he tried to remember. The weird thought hit him but nothing was impossible, at the moment. Jeremy opened the door again and looked at the black man, who turned back and looked at Jeremy again.

"Are you lost?", the black man asked.

"Shakur?"

The black man smiled and sipped from the cup. Another man appeared beside the black man, pointed a gun at his head and shot him, immediately. Jeremy's eyes opened wide as the ceramic cup broke on the ground. The dark brown coffee poured on the ground, mixed with the black man's blood. The smile on his face remained.