The Giant King

By Kenneth Robeson

Doc Savage and his friends, including the Black Panther, join forces with the crew of the Venture to return King Kong home. But to get out of Kong's world alive everyone must now rely on the great ape's incredible strength and even more incredible mind.

First of all, the necessary disclaimers: This is a work of fan fiction, written by me because I am a fan of the characters I am using. I use none of them with permission, and I get no profit except my enjoyment and hopefully the enjoyment of others. This story features the creations of Merian C. Cooper, Edgar Wallace, and company, as adapted by Peter Jackson and associates. This story also includes the characters created by Lester Dent (writing as Kenneth Robeson) and the editors of Street and Smith's Doc Savage Magazine. The Black Panther was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and originally introduced in the Fantastic Four, but this version of the Black Panther is not T'Challa, but a predecessor (perhaps T'Challa's grandfather or great uncle). This story will also include at least references to concepts from the Disney version of The Mighty Joe Young (also originating with Merian C. Cooper and associates), Congo by Michael Crichton, The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle, The Gladiator by Phillip Wylie, various other pulp heroes, and several other sources introduced as we go along.

Secondly, a warning to fans of the movie: I will be substantially reworking the mythology of the Jackson movie, particularly as it relates to "Skull Island". In other words, don't expect it to be true to the book The World of King Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island,because as much as I liked that book, I have substantial problems with the idea that Kong lived on an island in the east Indian Ocean, much less the idea that he was transported from that location to New York on the Venture. So, an alternative explanation for Skull Island will be proposed here. Hope you enjoy it.

With that in mind, here we go.

Chapter 1 A Giant Escapes!

Although they were dressed alike, the two men entering the Alhambra Theater on a surprisingly warm December night couldn't have looked more different. One man was of medium height, sharply handsome with the mobile mouth of an orator. He was Theodore Marley Brooks, former Brigadier General and head of a secret think tank during the Great War. He was one of the most gifted lawyers Harvard ever turned out, and looking at him, clad in his elegant black tuxedo and black top hat, no one would have been surprised to learn this. His friends called him Ham, all except for his best friend, who called him a shyster.

In stark contrast the other man, although clad in a matching tuxedo and top hat, looked like a red headed orangutan stuffed into fancy clothes. Under the top hat was a shock of red hair covering very little forehead to speak of. Tiny eyes looked out from pits of gristle, and in profile one would have sworn that his face in fact projected like an ape's. Completing the impression of apishness, his legs were short and bowed, and his arms were long, hanging almost to his knees. His hands were huge, with red hair on the backs of them. One might have assumed, looking at him, that there was very little intelligence in his small appearing cranium. However, such an assumption could not be further from the truth because the apish man was the former Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Blodgett Mayfair, graduate of both Harvard and the University of Chicago, and a brilliant chemist whose research had resulted in compounds found in everything from the latest plastics to the latest toothpaste. He was also a member of the same secret think tank during the Great War as his friend Ham. His friends called him Monk, all except for his best friend, who called him a big stupid ape.

"So, you big stupid ape, couldn't scare up a date eh?" said Ham to his best friend. "And in your case, I do mean scare up a date."

"Shaddup, shyster," said Monk to his best friend, his voice coming out as a squeak one had to strain to hear. "I'll have you know that my date's already here."

"You lying anthropoid," Ham replied with an elegant snort. On his left arm was a very lovely young brunette in an elegant, long red dress and black mink coat. "We all know you couldn't get a date if your life depended on it."

Ham smiled inwardly as his friend's face turned a bright red to match his shock of red hair. The elegant lawyer knew that his friend was actually very gifted in getting dates with attractive members of the opposite sex. No one, including Monk himself, quite understood how he did it. However, no one could deny that the ape-like chemist could turn on the charm when he wanted to, changing his usual high screech of a voice into a pleasing baritone.

"That's rich, shyster," Monk replied hotly. "Being called a liar by a lawyer is like being called stupid by a moron. My date's in Denham's show."

Ham snorted again.

"Who is this unfortunate girl, who gets to perform with one ape only to go out with another?"

"Crystal Evans," Monk replied. "You remember her."

Indeed Ham did. Both he and Monk had pursued the pretty young blond, who had ambitions of becoming an actress. Ham had thought that she had given them both the cold shoulder.

"You…you…" Ham stuttered, but couldn't continue. He didn't want to insult the lovely young woman he already had on his arm by accusing Monk of cheating in their earlier contest for Crystal Evans. He saw Monk, who of course was very aware of his friend's predicament, with a smug smile on his undeniably ugly face. The lawyer made a mental note to be especially alert to any opportunity to humiliate his best friend. This never ending game of one-upmanship formed the basis of their friendship.

As Monk and Ham continued to squabble, another man entered the theater. This man looked, in his own way, every bit as unusual as Monk. The man looked like a human daddy longlegs, nearly 7 feet tall and so thin it looked as if the slightest breeze might break him in two. He was so tall that even though he ducked as he entered into the theater lobby, his top hat brushed the elevated doorframe and fell off of his head, revealing thinning short dark hair. Flushing slightly in embarrassment, the tall thin man bent down and picked up his hat, and as he replaced it on his head he scanned the crowd until he saw Monk and Ham both waving to him. The newcomer was William Harper Littlejohn. A severe visual impairment in his left eye, over which he wore a monocle for formal occasions, kept him from going into the service, but it didn't keep him from becoming one of the world's most prominent archeologists, as well as a respected paleontologist. His friends called him Johnny, and Ham and Monk were two of his closest friends.

"Salutations, my collegial acquaintances!" Johnny said as he approached Monk and Ham. Johnny's informal rule in life was never say in one or two short words what could be said in several long words. Johnny took a kind of perverse pleasure in seeing people scramble for their dictionaries, or just look dumbfounded, when he spoke to them. Rarely, however, did he succeed in mystifying or confusing Monk or Ham with his verbosity.

"Hi, Johnny," Monk said. "Glad you could join us."

"Indeed, I am pleased to renew my association with you as well," said Johnny as he finally made his way over to his two friends.

Ham's date turned to the lawyer and whispered loudly, "Where do you find these oddballs, Hammie?"

"They're my friends, Marilyn," Ham said in a disapproving tone.

"But you always make fun of how Monk looks," Marilyn said. "And the other guy looks weirder than he does."

"I make fun of Monk because he's my best friend," Ham said. "We always insult each other. That doesn't mean that I will just stand by and let anyone else insult him, or Johnny."

"Okay!" Marilyn said angrily. "Okay! I didn't know, for cryin' out loud!"

Inwardly, Ham knew this would be the last time he accompanied Miss Marilyn Ally anywhere, which was too bad, the lawyer thought, because she was really easy on the eyes. In the end, however, he preferred girls who were not so quick to judge his friends based on their appearance. Since he was dating Marilyn because she was a knockout, the irony of his thinking was not lost on him. He knew that Monk would no doubt take the earliest opportunity to rib him on his double standard.

There was an uncomfortable silence between the three men and the girl as they made their way, pressed together by the crowd, to the theater doors. All around them, people in various forms of formal dress talked excitedly.

Then a voice bellowed from amidst the center of popping flashbulbs.

"Monk? Ham? Is that you?"

"Hello, Carl," said Monk in his most magnificent baritone.

"Good to see you fellows," Carl Denham said as he made his way over to them and shook first Monk's hand, then Ham's. Denham, who was the producer of the show they had come to see, exuded high energy. He was a man of just below medium height, slightly heavy in the middle, although whatever extra weight he carried didn't seem to slow him down.

Denham had known Monk and Ham since the Great War. He was a young bomber pilot (in fact, he'd lied about his age to get into the service) who had very definite ideas about the potential of air power during the war, and would talk endlessly about them to anyone who would listen. Denham soon acquired the reputation of being a big talking dreamer, but as a pilot no one could question his guts. After being shot down, Denham had made his way back through enemy lines after setting his own broken arm. The tale of a wounded, presumed dead, Carl Denham staggering onto the airfield he'd taken off from a week earlier became something of a small legend in its retelling. The small legend of Lt. Carl Denham, in turn, brought him to the attention of General "Black Jack" Pershing, who had something of a soft spot for convalescing officers with courage. Then, as now, Denham never missed an opportunity to try to sell someone influential on something, and he immediately started to talk to Pershing about the importance of air power. As Pershing often did when confronted with someone who claimed to have an idea that would revolutionize warfare, he sent Denham to Brigadier General Brooks' think tank. Denham's ideas were nothing that Ham's crew hadn't considered before, but the small quartet of brilliant but wild men liked Denham's sheer brass, and so they let him stick around.

"So how big is this gorilla of yours anyway?" Monk asked Denham, his voice returning to its customary squeak.

Denham simply smiled like the cat that ate the canary.

"You'll see for yourself soon enough," Denham said as he turned his attention to Johnny.

"You must be Doctor Littlejohn," Denham said, extending his hand to Johnny. The tall archeologist/paleontologist took Denham's hand and shook it. "Boy, you of all people would love Skull Island."

"I am confident that I would take imagined pleasure in a fantastical pseudo-visit to your ersatz land mass," Johnny said.

Denham nodded, still smiling. Evidently, he was unaware that Johnny had just accused him of making Skull Island up.

"So, is the big guy himself here?" Denham asked, looking around.

Monk, Ham, and Johnny all knew immediately who Denham meant. During the Great War, the members of Ham's think tank met a remarkable teenaged surgeon, Clark Savage Junior, or "Doc". In Doc Savage, each member of the think tank found a colleague and a kindred spirit, a fellow freak. After the war, the former think tank members joined Doc as he traveled the world helping people in need. Johnny, Doc's boyhood friend, soon joined them in their adventures. To the world at large, Monk, Ham, and Johnny were Doc's "aides". However, Doc simply referred to them as "brothers". Doc was now famous throughout the world, known as the "Man of Bronze" because of the metallic bronze tint of his skin and his hair. He was a physical and mental marvel, the enemy of international criminals whose evil deeds horrified and mystified the world.

"Doc's not here, Carl," Ham said.

"Still mourning his father huh?" Denham said. "I heard about the death of the elder Doctor Savage. Some tropical disease wasn't it? What a tough break."

"Actually, the elder Savage's demise was directly attributable to human intentionality," Johnny said.

"You mean he was murdered?" Denham asked with a glint in his eye.

Ham and Monk both gave Johnny a hard look. Johnny shrugged.

"Actually," Monk said. "Doc's not here because he's working on some projects with Renny and Long Tom."

Renny, the former Colonel John Renwick, and Long Tom, the former Major Thomas Roberts, were Doc Savage's other two aides, and also former members of Ham's think tank. Renny was a brilliant civil engineer, and Long Tom was an equally brilliant electrical engineer.

Carl Denham's attention, however, was no longer focused on the three friends.

"Mr. Mayor!" Carl called. "So good to see you!"

And just like that, Carl Denham was gone, gravitating as he always did to the most influential person he could find.

"Geez, Johnny!" Monk said with a squeak. "A movie producer like Carl Denham is the last person you'd want to spill the beans to about Doc's dad being murdered. Doc wanted that kept under wraps."

Johnny blushed.

"I'm sorry," he said, using short words for once. "I didn't think anyone but you fellows would understand me."

"Don't underestimate Carl Denham," Ham said. "He may look like a self involved movie producer, and he is, but he's no dummy, and he's got more guts than anyone I've ever met, Doc, Renny, Long Tom, and present company excluded."

"Don't forget Pat," Monk said.

"How could I forget Pat?" Ham replied. Marilyn sniffed and jerked her head away from Ham.

Ham offered his arm back to Marilyn, who pointedly ignored it.

"Let's go find our seats," Monk suggested.

With that, Monk, Ham, Johnny, and Marilyn followed the crowd into the theater.

…

The theater was sold out, filled with New York's wealthiest, most famous, and indeed most infamous citizens. Johnny noticed a couple of organized crime figures who were on Doc's short list to be watched. He also thought he saw Greta Garbo, Robert Armstrong, and Charlie Chaplin in the audience.

Monk, Ham, Marilyn, and Johnny were all seated in the center section of the theater, about 7 rows from the front. Monk, because of his patents, was the wealthiest among them and had bought the tickets, although it was Ham's connections with the rich and powerful in and out of city hall that had secured preferential seating so close to the stage.

The crowd was buzzing with excitement. Everyone had heard the story. The Venture, a small freighter that specialized in the transport of live animals, had been hired by Carl Denham to go to Skull Island, a "legendary" island in the East Indian Ocean west of Indonesia that somehow no one had ever heard of before (although Doc had raised an eyebrow when he heard the name "Skull Island"). The famous movie star Bruce Baxter, the famous playwright Jack Driscoll, and an obscure vaudeville actress named Ann Darrow all accompanied Carl Denham, his film crew, and the crew of the Venture on the voyage to Skull Island. On Skull Island, the crew of the Venture encountered hostile natives, a giant gorilla much larger than any heretofore seen, and living dinosaurs. The crew of the Venture, after great hardship, succeeded in capturing the giant gorilla by taking advantage of his attraction to Miss Darrow. The tale of a lost island inhabited by dinosaurs and of a giant gorilla attracted to a vaudeville actress was difficult for Monk, Ham, and Johnny to swallow. However, it was an undeniable fact that 17 of the men who went on that voyage, 15 crew members and 2 members of Denham's film crew, did not return.

According to Crystal Evans, Ann Darrow refused to appear with the giant gorilla, who Denham called "King Kong", because she was so traumatized by the events leading up to his capture. So, Crystal had been hired to substitute for Ann Darrow in Denham's show. Crystal had told Monk that the gorilla was indeed huge. "Bigger than a house" was the way she put it. Skeptical, Monk had repeated Crystal's description of King Kong to Doc and Johnny, but evidently not to Ham. Monk was surprised to find that Johnny and Doc were open to the idea of a giant gorilla. The two men told Monk that a form of gigantism was known to occur every few generations among the mountain gorillas who lived in and around the ancient, advanced, and highly secretive nation of the Wakanda. Doc and Johnny were among the very few outsiders who had ever been to that mysterious land. For the most part, they didn't talk about their experiences in the Wakanda even with their other friends, because both men had taken an oath of secrecy.

However, while Johnny was prepared to accept the possibility that Denham had brought back a giant gorilla, he was very skeptical about the existence of a place called Skull Island where dinosaurs walked the Earth. Of course, in describing his skepticism to his friends he had used much longer words.

The orchestra started to play, and to the polite but enthusiastic applause of the crowd, Carl Denham walked on stage in front of closed curtains, behind which presumably hid the great King Kong. Denham acknowledged the crowd, and as the orchestra stopped playing, he started to speak.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you a very strange story: The story of our adventure, in which 17 of our party suffered horrible deaths. Their lives lost, in pursuit of a savage beast. A monstrous aberration of nature! But even the meanest brute can be tamed. Yes ladies and gentlemen, as you will see, the beast was no match…for the charms of a girl. A girl from New York!"

As the crowd applauded the home town reference, Johnny thought about why he instinctively disliked Denham. He thought the producer was a flamboyant if charming liar, and he had difficulty understanding what Ham or Monk saw in him.

For most of his young life, Johnny accompanied his father as he went on archeological expeditions. It was on one of those expeditions that he met the Savages. He and Doc (then known as "Junior") would climb over and play on ruins both in Central America and Africa while their fathers would supervise the digging. Later, his father was asked to accompany the elder Savage to the Wakanda, an incredible privilege because the Wakandans generally did not allow outsiders into their country. There, Johnny and Doc became playmates to the princes and princesses of the Wakanda. In the Wakanda, Johnny learned something that Doc's other aides still didn't know, that the model for the way Doc was raised was based on the childrearing practices of the Wakandan royal family. Among Doc and the Wakandan children, Johnny felt at home. But all too soon, Johnny left the Wakanda and the Savage family and went with his father to excavate ruins in Peru. There, his father was killed in an accidental cave-in, and Johnny was sent to be raised by his maternal grandparents, who enrolled him in an exclusive private high school. Denham reminded him of the small minded, big talking rich boy bullies who incessantly taunted the freakishly tall, odd looking gaunt boy with the sun darkened skin. As a result of his awful high school years, Johnny had withdrawn deep within himself, and it was only after completing his doctorates in both archeology and paleontology that he started to loosen up again, and then only after Doc had recruited him into his group. For the first time since his visit to the Wakanda, Johnny had found a group of people he was comfortable with.

Denham continued his drama laden speech.

"…He was a king in the world he knew. But he comes to you now a captive. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World!"

The curtain started to go up. The crowd as one leaned forward in interest. Johnny found himself leaning forward as well. He had seen a skeleton of a giant gorilla, one that in life was probably close to the size of an adult female elephant. He wondered if that was what he would see now.

The curtain continued to go up. Johnny saw the feet, then the colossal and thick legs, then the scarred and extremely massive chest. William Harper Littlejohn, for the first time in his remarkable life, was truly at a complete loss for words. At first he thought Denham must have been pulling off an incredibly audacious cheat, a remarkable sculpture. But then he saw the creature breathing, and he smelled the undeniably pungent odor characteristic of a living gorilla.

Johnny shook his head. What he was seeing was impossible. The creature before him should not have been able to grow so large without the body's size outstripping the heart and lung's ability to keep it alive. The giant gorillas that occasionally appeared in the mountains in and around the Wakanda typically did not live past 12 or 13 because of the strain caused by their excessive size and weight, but this creature was plainly older, much older. A full adult male, and not even a young adult male.

But even the giant gorillas of the Wakanda were less than a third of the size of the incredible living beast on stage. Kong, who was clearly drugged, was seated, and seated was easily 20 feet tall. Johnny estimated that Kong had the mass of at least two large bull elephants, and as his trained eye continued to observe Kong, he could see adaptations to the great size, an enormous chest which undoubtedly contained a huge heart and gigantic lungs, and massive arms and legs with extremely powerful muscles and bones to support the beast's great weight. Johnny estimated that Kong may have weighed as much as 10 to 12 tons. He actually seemed a little thin, which wasn't surprising since the creature was almost certainly sedated during his voyage. In fact, Johnny was more convinced than ever that the creature could not have come all the way from an island in the Indian Ocean. The crew of the Venture would not have been able to simultaneously keep him sedated and fed and hydrated for such a long voyage.

But where did he come from then? Johnny couldn't imagine, because the most disturbing observation of all came from looking at the scars on Kong's chest, arms, and face. The scars were made by teeth, probably reptilian. The teeth were pointed and spear like, so the creatures that created the wounds were probably adapted to eating smaller prey than Kong. Thus, Johnny suspected that the wounds were sustained protecting smaller creatures, perhaps infants and juveniles, even females of the species. Nevertheless, some of the wounds came from animals that were probably even larger than Kong, and the only predatory land animals known to have been that large were predatory dinosaurs, although most of the larger dinosaurian predators had steak knife teeth instead of the spear like teeth that made the wounds on Kong.

Johnny shook his head again. Nothing, but nothing, made sense. An anthropoid primate that large should not have existed, and Johnny could not think how there could possibly be a place that was sufficiently close to New York to allow for the live transport of a creature the size of Kong by boat while being so remote as to be practically undiscovered. Furthermore, generally only continents were large enough to support giant fauna. Where did Denham find his beast?

….

Kong was dimly aware of being pulled upright. At first, after his capture, he assumed he must have been dead, his dream spirit transported to a hellish dream world, where the air was heavy and almost impossible to breathe. A world where his limbs felt as if they were made out of stone, too heavy to lift. A world that tasted wrong.

Eventually however, even as he alternated between complete unconsciousness and half consciousness, Kong realized that he was still alive, and a captive of the tiny tufted hairless apes that were so much like those that had taken the lives of his remaining family. However, Kong didn't seem to be able to work up the energy to worry about his captivity, much less resist it. Besides, even in his drug addled state he realized that he was on one of their ocean skimming craft, and that unlike the little tufted apes, he could not swim.

Then one day, he half awoke to find that the last scents of familiarity, the smell of old wood and excrement, the perfumed smell of the little golden headed ape, and the smell of the ocean, were now gone. His arms were bound to some sort of frame, almost like the limbs of the little female tufted apes were bound when they were offered to him.

He became aware of that there was a crowd of little tufted apes in front of him, and there were still others closer to him, dancing, darker skinned like the little apes from his homeland. One of the paler skinned little apes was also dancing in front of him, and Kong dimly realized that he was looking at a reenactment. Such primitive creatures!

Then, she appeared, bound as she had been when he had first seen her. He felt anger. It was such a waste. Back home, the little tufted apes behind the wall continued to offer him their young females, even though the reason for the tradition evidently had been forgotten by them, and was certainly no longer relevant. He'd done his best to protect the frightened little creatures, who were the only companionship he'd had left, but they were so helpless in their fear, and all too quickly one of the land's many dangers would claim them. Then, the little yellow headed ape was offered to him. A creature that actually stood up to him, then later laughed with him, and finally tried to talk to him in her peculiar sound segmenting language as if they were companions! And now her fellow little apes had imprisoned her as well, "offering" her to him again in a mockery of the original ritual, useless though it had become. He started to wake, the effects of the anesthetics chased away by adrenaline. He tried to talk to her, reassure her, all the while knowing that she couldn't understand. This was outrageous. This was cruel! They were mocking him, and her!

Then she raised her head, and screamed.

It wasn't her, and Kong knew that the mockery was complete.

Kong finally had enough. He roared. The bindings were strong, but even in his weakened state, in this heavy world, he knew they were not enough to hold him.

…

The crowd started to get restive as Kong started to show more signs of life, and then started to roar. Monk looked at Johnny, who looked back at him. They were thinking the same thing. Not even chains of "chrome steel" would be enough to contain so gigantic a primate, one who had the strength to support his own weight.

Monk leaned over to his best friend.

"Ham," he said softly.

Ham looked back at him, startled. Monk and Ham never spoke to one another by name except in the gravest emergencies. It was, in fact, their unofficial signal that there was great danger.

"Take your floozy and get out of here," Monk said. "Call Doc. Describe Kong to him, in detail. We're gonna have a situation, and based on the look on his face, it's going to be sooner than later.

"Floozy?" Marilyn said. "Are you gonna let him call me that?"

"Let's go," Ham replied.

"But I wanna see the big monkey!" Marilyn said.

"Now, Marilyn!" Ham said as he stood up, dragging Marilyn to her feet with him. Monk was standing up as well, and already making his way to the aisle.

"Hey, siddown!"

"Down in front!"

"What're you boys, scared?"

""Hey look at that guy! He's probably the monkey's shrimp uncle!"

Monk ignored the comments as he reached the aisle. Denham had now invited photographers to take pictures of him and Baxter standing in front of the giant ape. Monk ran to the stage, vaulting onto it as if he really did have the agility of an ape. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ham in the aisle, giving Marilyn over to one of the ushers while urgently talking to another one of them. He would be identifying himself as an associate of Doc's, and Monk knew that would make the ushers take notice.

Monk ran over to Crystal.

"Monk, get me out of here!" she screamed, in obvious terror. "I think he's starting to break the chains!"

Indeed, Kong was clearly enraged by the flash bulbs popping in his face. However, Monk realized in the pit of his stomach, with growing dread, that the giant ape had first begun to show anger when he'd gotten a good look at Crystal. Incredibly, it seemed that there might be something to Denham's story of Kong's bond with Ann Darrow, and the great ape seemed to be less than pleased to find Crystal in her stead.

"CARL!" Monk roared with such force that he could be heard in the back row, even though he was in competition with the roaring Kong, the popping flash bulbs, and the growing uneasy murmur among the crowd in the theater. "Tell the photographers to knock off the pictures! NOW!"

Denham looked at Monk.

"Monk, what are you doing here?" he said. "It's OK. Let him roar! That's all he can do, believe me."

"Forget that, let me out of here!" Crystal yelled to Monk even as he got her left wrist untied. "Oh God! PLEASE!"

Coincidentally, at the same time Kong's right wrist broke free of its restraining chain. His left wrist immediately followed suit, and Kong was completely free.

After that was bedlam. The crowd panicked, running for the aisles in a blind dash to the exits. Kong reached out and quickly grabbed Crystal, knocking Monk off of the stage. Laying on his back, the wind knocked out of him, Monk watched helplessly as Kong looked at Crystal screaming in the palm of his right hand. Then, he carelessly tossed her aside. While the toss was almost gentle, Crystal flew a distance of easily forty feet, and fell thirty feet more. The crunch was sickening.

Then, Kong did something that Monk would have thought impossible. He leaped over him. Monk heard Kong land in the seats behind him. There was a brief scream, rapidly cut off, that told him that Kong had probably crushed someone underfoot when he landed. Monk forced himself to his feet, his whole body aching and still extremely short of breath. Kong was raking his hands along the rows of chairs, uprooting them. Monk noticed that he wasn't actually attacking any people, although they were easily in his reach.

Familiar strong hands grabbed Monk's shoulders and held him steady.

"Johnny, that…" Monk said.

"That's impossible," Johnny said. "What we are watching is physically impossible."

"No it's not," Monk said. "Danner! Remember Danner!"

Monk knew Johnny would remember the late Hugo Danner, a handsome man of medium height who, thanks to his father's alkaline radical formula, was by far the strongest man who ever lived. A man of such monstrous strength he was literally bullet proof.

"You think that Abenego Danner's formula was somehow applied to a gorilla?" Johnny said incredulously.

"No, but such a chemical combination could occur naturally, it does in certain insec…" Monk stopped. Kong had gone very quiet. He was looking intently up at the balcony. Monk looked up, and saw a man in a suit and trench coat. He looked familiar, but he was too distant for Monk to positively identify him. The man started to back away, then run. Kong roared, then leaped to the side wall of the theater and grabbed a corner. Incredibly, Kong hung for a moment on the side of the theater before dropping onto the balcony. The balcony could not completely hold his weight and started to collapse, but Kong struggled up and forward anyway, nearly catching the man. However, the man made it through the nearest exit door. Kong roared at the door and tried to push his hand through the doorway, but gave up after a few seconds. Kong then gathered himself up and leaped, his arms covering his head. He smashed through plaster and brick and dropped through the hole he'd made onto the street below. Monk heard the metal of the theater's marquee groan underneath the giant gorilla's immense weight.

"Holeee," Monk said as he looked at the immense hole in the rear of the theater. He could hear Kong roaring, people screaming, and brakes squealing. "I sure hope that fellow got away. The big ape had murder in his eye."

Upon saying the word "murder", with a horrific start Monk remembered Crystal. He turned and ran to her crumpled body, but the awkward angles of her bloodied limbs and head left no question that she was dead. Denham was standing silently over her. He was clearly in shock. Monk looked at the pathetic remains of the pretty and sweet young woman he had just been getting to know, and felt a blinding rage strike him. He stepped up to Denham, grabbed his coat collar with his left hand, and pulled back his massive right fist.

Denham simply looked at him. Denham was tough, extremely tough. He was one of the few people in the world who could realistically have a chance to win a scrap with Monk, but he made no attempt to struggle or fight back.

"Go ahead, Monk," Denham said. "Kill me."

Monk let Denham go with disgust.

"What the Hell's wrong with you, Carl?" Monk yelled, his voice deepened by grief.

"Actually, I think there are several other questions Mr. Denham needs to answer first," said Johnny. "First and foremost, who is that man Kong is after, and why is he after him?"

…..

Doctor Clark Savage Junior was in his office on the 86th floor of the world's tallest skyscraper. Standing next to him was John Renwick, or "Renny". Both men were of about the same height, approximately 6 foot 8 inches, and the same weight, around 260 pounds. However, from a distance Doc had the proportions of a very muscular but otherwise normal sized man. Renny, on the other hand, with his long face and huge hands, looked abnormally big no matter how distant he was. Renny was an extremely strong man. He had the eccentric hobby of slamming his fists through oak panels. But his strength was like that of a child in comparison to Doc.

They were looking at the plans for a bridge that was proposed to be built over a section of the Caspian Sea. Renny was in charge of the structural design, and Doc was assisting him. The bridge would allow for needed supplies to go to a group of desperately poor villagers.

The blue phone rang. The blue phone was Doc's private line, known only to his aides, his cousin Pat, and a few others to whom he was very close, and was only used in emergencies. Doc picked up the phone.

"Doc, this is Ham!" said Ham unnecessarily. "I'm calling from the front of the Alhambra. We've seen Kong and…"

Doc could hear screaming in the background, then a terrific crash and what sounded like a loud roar.

"Oh God," Ham said. "He's out, Doc! He's out and he's huge. Twenty, maybe twenty five feet tall when he is walking on his knuckles. He just, he just smashed through the front brick wall of the theater and he is tossing around cars like they were match toys."

"Ham," said Doc. "Do you need get off the phone and get to safety?"

"I'm kind of out of the way over to the side, Doc," Ham said, sounding a little calmer even as the chaotic background noise continued. "He's really huge, Doc, even bigger than Denham said he was. He broke free and he's, it looks like he's picking up women…blonds…looking at them…and dropping them on snow banks."

Doc's office was filled with an odd sound that seemed to come from everywhere at once. Doc was trilling, something he did without even being aware of it when he was amazed or fascinated. At this moment, he was both.

"Ham, how is he moving?" Doc asked. "Is he slow, ponderous?"

"No," Ham said. "He's agile, and quick. How can something that big move that fast? I hope Monk and Johnny are OK. I left them inside the theater to call you."

"I'm sure they are," Doc said as he mentally cursed himself for not attending Denham's show. He felt an excitement like he'd never felt before. Ham's description of Kong was the possible confirmation of a personal theory that was so wild, so incredible that he never dared tell anyone, even his own aides, about it.

"Ham, tell me about Kong's head," Doc said.

"His head?" Ham asked.

"Yes, his head," Doc said. "Is it proportional to the rest of his body, or does it seem small?"

"Believe me," Ham replied. "His head is as big as the rest of him."

"All right, Ham, listen to me very closely, here's what I want you to do…" Doc said as the emotions of excitement, concern, and even fear all built within him. However, his voice remained as calm and modulated as ever as he relayed his instructions to Ham.

"One last thing, have Johnny call me as soon as you see him," Doc said. "He's a more trained observer in this situation."

"You got it, Doc," Ham said. Then he hung up.

"Doc, what the Hell?" Renny asked as Doc hung up the blue phone and picked up the receiver to another phone, this one red. "Did I hear what I thought I…"

"Later, Renny," Doc said as he dialed a familiar number. "I need you to call Long Tom. I have an extremely important errand for him. Excuse me, Renny. Hello Mr. President. You will probably be hearing about a situation in New York…you've already heard? Yes, it's a crisis, and I agree that you should call in the military.

"Sir, you told me not too long ago that if I ever needed a favor from you, to ask it. I need to ask for it now. I need you to do something for me, and I'm going to ask you for a great deal of faith…yes sir, I appreciate that, but believe me when I tell you that in this situation, you will be hesitant to trust me. But I ask for that trust nevertheless."

Doc then started to make his request known to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The President protested several times that the risks were too big but in the end, to his credit, he said he would do as Doc requested.

"But, young man," President Roosevelt said. "Believe me when I say that if you fail in this, the city and state of New York, and quite possibly the entire nation, will want to draw and quarter us both."

Next Chapter, A Giant Pursued!

Note: For this story, there is likely to be a lot of time between updates. I suspect this will be the longest fan fiction that I am ever likely to write.