Chapter 128: A Perfect Fit for the Job
Orin Vale slowly stood up. Even before the outline of his body fully emerged, the brilliance from his eyes and chest had already pierced through the smoke screen.
Then, his gaze locked onto the giant gorilla before him.
A giant gorilla, lost in space during a human aerospace experiment, mutated by radiation, and now returned. This job sounded way too much like a perfect fit for his expertise.
The appearance of such a massive opponent immediately drew Titano's attention. It turned its head, let out a fierce, demonstrative roar at Orin Vale, causing the glass in the surrounding buildings to tremble faintly.
Then, it followed up with a headlong charge!
Its speed was astonishing; the massive body was accompanied by a sonic boom the moment it charged. Orin Vale quickly realized this was the effect of a minor Speed Force link granted to it by Grodd. The protective effect of the Speed Force also explained how a behemoth dozens of meters tall could casually break the sound barrier without blasting the entire street to pieces.
However, Orin Vale had just gained a sudden enlightenment in the Great Hall of Gorilla City. Although he hadn't fully digested what he'd just learned, he was already quite confident when it came to speed.
He executed a lateral dodge to evade Titano's charge, then led with a hand blade, striking it painfully on its skull. Titano only felt a buzzing tremor in its head. Its colossal body staggered back, and its right foot crashed through the already overburdened ground, sinking into a pit. The entire monkey lost its balance and tilted to the side.
Orin Vale pressed his advantage with a combination. A right whip kick landed on its liver, the heavy impact exploding in a ripple of light on the gorilla's solid muscles. Titano grunted, clutching its side. Orin Vale followed up with a Sun-Character Punch, unleashing a rapid-fire barrage on Titano's chest.
The giant gorilla, dizzy and disoriented, roared and raised its leg to kick. Orin Vale leaped off the ground, avoiding the low attack while simultaneously delivering a mid-air leg sweep as a headshot. The kick knocked Titano's jaw askew, sending saliva flying. Its massive body crashed down between the city blocks with a deafening rumble, cracking the ground and snapping power lines, sending sparks flying everywhere.
Orin Vale landed after the flying kick, rose, and calmly dusted off his hands.
He didn't need any greater speed. The mutated gorilla might have off-the-charts strength and physical constitution, but it had no technique. Fighting it was like bullying a child.
However, for one of Superman's opponents, its toughness was certainly not bad. Titano shook its groggy head and climbed to its feet, glaring furiously at Orin Vale.
Orin Vale stood his ground and made a taunting hand gesture.
"Roar!"
Titano roared and launched into another headlong charge, trailing electric arcs as it leaped off the ground, pouncing forward with both palms outstretched.
As for Orin Vale...
...he simply performed a squat.
With its target suddenly ducking, Titano's pounce missed completely. Carried by its hypervelocity inertia, it flew straight past the coastline and crashed into the waters off Central City with a tremendous splash.
It became a water monkey.
Orin Vale moved closer. As he neared the shore, the water suddenly erupted with a splash. A massive wave of water, like a water dragon, came thrashing toward him—
—and drenched him.
The great gorilla was using both palms to continuously scoop up seawater, angrily splashing it at him.
Orin Vale: "..."
It couldn't even be considered an 'attack' in concept; it was more like an angry child venting its frustration.
Standing there and letting the raging gorilla splash him, Orin Vale took the opportunity to scan its brain.
Rage, hatred, a desire for destruction... but it was all fading.
Those were not its own emotions.
In the Original Work, it was indeed the same; although it had been launched into the Universe by humans, drifted alone for twenty years, mutated from radiation, and only returned to its home by coincidence, Titano itself was still a kind little monkey, as simple as a mentally underdeveloped child.
It held no grudges, much less any desire for revenge. In the Superman stories, the trouble it caused was usually because it was looking for food or someone to play with. It was just that its body was too large, so it naturally caused trouble wherever it went.
This time, Titano was being used by Grodd. Grodd had used his telepathic abilities to implant a destructive impulse in its mind. However, now that Grodd had been executed by the elders of Gorilla City, the instigator was gone, and the implanted emotions and thoughts were gradually fading away.
Its own consciousness was returning.
Although Titano couldn't swim, at this depth near the coast, its height allowed it to touch the bottom. It quickly climbed ashore, shook its groggy head, looked left and right, and then picked up a small car from the roadside debris that it found appealing.
Then it aimed in Orin Vale's direction, took a deep breath, and hurled it into the air with all its might!
However, its aim was off and it used a bit too much force. The small car shot up into the sky with a *whoosh*, becoming a black dot before disappearing from sight.
Titano raised its head and blinked a couple of times.
Its blank expression seemed to say, "Where's my car?"
It squinted at the sky for a moment, as if it had lost what it threw. So, it shook its head, decided not to think about it, and bared its teeth again, putting on a fierce expression. It took a large step forward, about to charge at Orin Vale once more.
Then, the car it had thrown up came back down.
Without any deviation, it smashed right on its own head.
The poor car instantly shattered against its forehead, sending metal fragments and a burning tire flying in all directions. The erupting flame scorched its entire face black. Its two eyes blinked in a daze on its blackened face, looking strangely goofy and cute...
...it didn't seem to be very smart.
It plopped down on its butt and started panting. After a couple of breaths, it turned its head and seemed to inadvertently glimpse something, its eyes suddenly lighting up.
It was a shop on the street with a shattered display window.
It looked like some kind of toy store, probably hit by the shockwave from the fight. The window was shattered, the roof had collapsed, and little plastic figures, both clothed and unclothed, had flown out and were scattered all over the ground.
Among them was a pile of plush toys scattered everywhere.
Titano moved closer, extended two massive fingers, and carefully plucked one from the pile of plush toys. For a creature of its size, it was like picking up an ant.
A teddy bear.
Titano was overjoyed, its face beaming with childlike happiness. It clutched the little teddy bear and rubbed it against its cheek again and again...
Orin Vale scanned it again. The mind control was completely gone; it had fully returned to normal.
A single teddy bear broke the mind control...
This characteristic had always been there. When Titano was being raised at the Aerospace Bureau, it had a special fondness for plush toys. In the Superman stories, whenever Titano went berserk, small toys like little bears or monkeys could always calm it down.
He just hadn't expected the effect to be so dramatic.
Titano, do you really like teddy bears that much?
Orin Vale thought for a moment.
At the end of *Superman: The Animated Series*, Superman found an uninhabited island at sea, carried Titano there, and released it into the wild.
Although that solution seemed to work out in the end, the island gave off a strong Skull Island vibe, leaving one with an ominous premonition. Moreover, just dumping a radiation-mutated gorilla there would easily attract the attention of interested parties. Whether it was Baldy from the villain camp or the troublemaker faction's heavyset, dark-skinned "Aircraft Carrier," it would be problematic if they got their hands on it.
But that didn't matter. The seniors from the Land of Light had encountered many similar situations during their training on Earth, and the Security Patrol's emergency manual had a recommended course of action for this very scenario.
After communicating with and calming it via telepathy, Orin Vale hoisted Titano onto his shoulder, shot up into the sky, and vanished from everyone's sight.
Once he reached a sufficient altitude, he let go, pushing the gorilla forward. He then condensed Light Energy in his chest, which shot forth as a series of blue rings of light.
The Shrinking Ray. It was a skill used by many of his predecessors, but it was almost always used on docile and friendly monsters.
The warm, blue rings of light enveloped Titano. The gorilla's body began to shrink, and shrink...
...until it returned to the form of the little monkey that had once boarded the rocket. It was wrapped in a small Orb of Light, which followed the pull of the Light Ray and flew into Orin Vale's palm.
The little monkey seemed to be exhausted from the ordeal and had fallen asleep in his palm. Even in its sleep, it tightly hugged the teddy bear in its arms, as if it never wanted to be separated again.
(end of chapter)