2013.05.29 - The Great Ape's Lament

Barbara has been watching Grodd for about a week. There are hours and hours of him sitting in front of the TV watching the discovery channel and the history channel. He never had a formal education on human history so what he knows if it, he's gotten from the history channel.. which is somewhat sad. 
There are a few interesting things that Grodd does while he is alone. While he cooks he talks on the phone to people. A lot of people. A different person every day, some times multiple people. She catches the names of a few of them and starts to piece together what is happening. He's in contact with human scientists and inventors using so many fake identities it's a wonder he can even keep track of them. He's helping the humans gradually progress in their technology. 
One scientist, a Doctor Terrance O'Hallen calls Grodd three times in the week using the unsecured line. The doctor is working on a way to create synthetic skin to help burn victims and when ever he hits a wall he calls to talk to Grodd. For some reason O'Hallen seems to think that Grodd is someone he went to college with named Miles Davis but there is no record of that person ever existing. He seems to spend time every day making the world better for humans. 
He uses his human identity to channel money into charity for things which relive the suffering of burn victims, people in car accidents, he's invested in and donating money too cancer research and aids research. He makes a series of odd purchases one day that seem to be in failed companies but then he makes a phone call to a guy called Thumper and gives him a list of buildings he wants destroyed. 
Barbara is able to stop the companies from being destroyed but not for long because Grodd also sent word out that the lead scientist of the key companies was about to make a break through and the companies Grodd invested in sent out a scalp hunter to hire them. Grodd does most of his business related villainy in his kitchen and living room as if he's keeping it separate from the science part. Just when she thought it couldn't get any weirder Grodd gets a phone call and she gets to listen to him hire a mutant terrorist to "suck out the eyeballs" of Sebastian Shaw, a vocally anti-mutant activist who Grodd suspects of making anti-mutant biological weapons. 
Grodd the super-villain is a strange, strange creature, a dichotomy. He seems to be perfectly willing to kill, crush, and destroy people's lives, but at the same time manipulates the world to make it a better place and ease suffering. Barbara might come to realize over time that he is playing the world like a game of operation, minimizing the suffering and pain he causes, while still achieving his goals and trying to make up for his sins without the world ever knowing about it. 
Of course, today is the first Tuesday that she has been watching Grodd and Tuesday is his 'Day off' from being a super-villain so today he's been sitting in front of the TV for hours, just watching TV, he's eating Popcorn and he called someone early this morning to arrange for some kind of special delivery service which should be arriving momentarily. 
Grodd, Barbara decides, is an enigma. Truth be told, she's never come across anyone at all like him. The balance of his activities is... not actually crazy. It's calculated. Very, very calculated. She can see that. More than that, she can see -- and has partially pieced together from the files she's salvaged -- that he plays a long game. Short term wins and losses mean very little to the giant, intelligent ape. Of course, she still hasn't gotten past the first two minutes of the X file (nor does she really want to), but the rest of them paint a very interesting picture. 
He's into everything.
For all that his basic knowledge of humanity seems to be gleaned primarily from reality tv and specialty channels, he still has a very good grasp of how the world of business and finance works. Despite his apparent altruism, however, she's not actually fooled. He's not the first villain she's met that's used the funding of good and noble projects to both off-set his villainy and act as a cover for his more nefarious plans. 
As the delivery van pulls up behind that explosive car in the drive way, she finds herself scanning through its electronic waybills to see just what might be on the manifest. 
The delivery van she was expecting doesn't show up, again Grodd surprises her because it is 3 cars full of women that show up, not a package. Looking back over the phone record she sees the number he called this morning was for a high class call girl service which specializes in clientele which value their privacy. He orders six girls as if he is having a party and they all show up like it's a perfectly normal thing. Tight leather and skimpy outfits abound. 
Grodd moves the TV over to sit catty-corner in the room as the girls all come inside which changes Barbara's point of view. He greets them at the door to his massively oversized house with what Barbara can deduce is a mind-blast of telepathic force. "The guests will be arriving later. Everything is normal. Come in." he says to them and they all just seem OK with it if somewhat spaced out. He points them to the main floor bathroom, "Go get ready. Wear the bikinis." he says then sends them off to get dressed while he moves the coffee table out of the way. 
About twenty minutes later the girls all come out of the bathroom dressed in skimpy beach-wear, which is appropriate since it's a house on the beach. It's strange how small the girls look in the house. Everything on the property has been exposed to Pym Particles to make it the right size for Grodd so everything in the house is almost double what it normally is. As a trick of the mind it makes the feed of the girls look like they have been shrunk instead of everything else being large. 
Once more invading the girls minds he further subdues them making some of them weaken and almost fall. They stop laughing and smiling but instead stand there like fleshy robots. "Follow me." he says as he leads them into the living room. Once there he sits down on the couch and bends one leg up on the couch picking up a clip board and pen. "Dance and make out." he instructs them and the girls flip into exotic dancer mode once more returning to seemingly happy, healthy young women who are enjoying what they are doing. They really seem to be enjoying what they are doing. One of them resists as if she knows something isn't right and the ugly, primal side of Grodd shows it ugly head for a moment as he snarls at her "I SAID DANCE!!!" his eyes glowing with power as he beats down her will to disobey with his mind. Once she conforms he looks on approvingly then starts calling the girls out one at a time. 
"Candy, what did the young senator's aid have to say about the H-11-T bill? Did he think it was going to have enough support to pass and did he know who was really baking it?" she stops making out with another girl long enough to tell him what she learned from the senator's aid. Then he moves on to the next girl and takes a report from her about a man who works for the department of labor, then another girl about a woman who works for a telecom company, and so forth and so on. He's using these high class prostitutes as sleeper agents. 
Oh, that's not good! Barbara saw the first 2 minutes of that file! She's not sure she wants to see it live-and-in-person (so to speak).
Before she truly hits the panic button, however, the overgrown Kong has picked up the mass tv, complete with its built in camera and the kinect sensor resting on its base unit, and shoved it into the far corner. She hears his instructions to the girls and their dutiful, spacey responses. 
As the pseudo-orgy starts up, Barbara shoves her glasses up over her brows and pinches the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes tight. "Ahgh! You've gotta be kidding me!" 
Her attention snaps back to the screen, as he snarls at the one recalcitrant hooker, hand reaching for her comset as the glasses fall back down on her nose. Shoving them back into place with the heel of her thumb, she jams the comset on her head and starts scrolling through contact that might have a chance of dealing with the simian monster. 
Then, of course, the reports begin. "Sonuvabitch..."
Grodd's face is serious and stern the entire time as the girls report to him even thought they the up on the ground in a writhing mass of lustful limbs in the process. He says, "Is there anything else any of you think I shouldn't know?" one of the girls says "Yes." and he looks at her motioning for her to stand up, "What is it you think I shouldn't know." and she says, "Luis Salvatore is bringing in a shipment of guns to Gotham Friday. A big one, using the Sun Set Queen cruise liner. I don't know who the buyers are, but he said to Eddie Barone they was freaks and he hoped they'd kill each other off. " Grodd says, "Very good. You did a very good job not telling me that. You are a good girl." he says and he reaches down to pat her on the head which oddly seems to make her very happy in her hypnotized state like that little bit of approval was something she really needed. "Now, girl's, you've all done an excellent job." he says clasping his ands on his clip board and looking at the mass of women, "I want you all to remember how much fun you had at my party and all the wonderful people you met here. You will remember it fondly and when I ask for you again you'll all want to come back and dance for me. OK?" they all happily agree with him. "Now I want you all to get your things, get in your cars, drive down to the beach, drink a lot then pass out together in your cars. You'll wake up in the morning remembering having a lot of fun but the details will be fuzzy because of the drinking." and they all happily obey him one of them yelling, "Party! Party! Party!" as they all leave. But that isn't the most interesting part... The most interesting part happens after the girls are long gone. Grodd moves the clip board over to the side of where he sits laying it on the coffee table without getting up then he sits there breathing deeply for a good twenty minutes. Deep in meditation. He rests his fists on his folded leg and to a less observant human he might appear to be relaxing but his fists are clinched so tightly that his knuckles can be seen pressing against the skin. His face twitches every few minutes like it's trying to perform an expression and he is forcing it to relax. Then the strangest thing of all, trickles of blood run over his leg from where his hands rest. His fingernails are driven into his palms so hard that they are bleeding. 
The camera on the television is sufficient to, after a time, discern the blood -- but that's only after it's matted his dark fur and oozed onto something a little less concealing. Barbara's brow arches quizzically as she watches with at least half her attention. 
The other half, however, is starting to call up information on Luis Salvatore, Eddie Barone, the Sun Set Queen, and related material. The comment about 'freaks' killing each other, suggests that the guns may not necessarily stay in Gotham, what with the recent Sentinel attacks in New York, but she can't be sure.
Another of her satellites tracks the girls to the beach. She's tempted to send a squad car out that way to curtail their partying, but it's a little close to Grodd's place and she doesn't want to risk spooking him. 
"What are you up to, Dr. Zombie-Kong?"
After calming himself for a while Grodd reaches back behind the couch to the picture that sits in a frame on the small table behind the long couch. She's been looking right at it but never really noticed it. It was a dark haired figure, hard to make out with the TV's camera. If she pulled up some of the archived footage she could digitally enhance the photo and see what he is looking at. 
The big gorilla turns and stretches out on the couch which unfortunately for Barbara gives her a view she will never forget. Grodd lays there looking at the picture and says, "I'm sorry, I know, I know, I don't know why I do it. I know you wanted me to stop. I know you think this whole thing is crazy." he says as he looks at the picture in the frame, "I know you don't like me being like this but I made a promise. I'm going to save our people. We can't trust the humans. They are primitive and scared, pathetic and weak. When he exposes us to them they will turn on us. They will take our technology and use it for war. " then he stops as if the picture is talking back to him, "It's been seventy five years. I think I'm entitled!" he argues with the picture frame. "You're the one who died. Not me." he snarls at the picture like he is furious at who ever it is in the picture. "Don't you dare tell me I can't! You know I'll never replace you! No one ever could! So just shut your mouth before I give you something to cry about!!" the ape yells at the picture then he leans back and closes his eyes, "I won't be long now. We'll be together. I just have to make them ready. I'll drag humanity kicking and screaming into an enlightened age if I have to. They have to be ready. When our people expose themselves humanity has to be at peace. One way or another, I won't let them destroy our family." he says hugging the picture to his chest. 
Barbara frowns faintly, scrolling back through footage and isolating that photo. Who is that? She finds a clear frame, zooms in, and enhances it before feeding it into a facial rec database that likely won't come up with too much, given the age of the photo. Still... you never know. Barbara has a history degree in her background. She didn't neglect historical records in her compilation of information for her network. You just never know what might come in handy. 
tThe information pulls up on the names the girl mentioned, Metro gun runners who were ran out of town by heroes. they must be trying to set up shop in Gotham. This is going to be their first 'big score' if it goes down well then they will be established in Gotham. Someone should do something about that... Grodd isn't going to. He's not the street vigilante type he's more of a big picture kind of guy. 
The Gorilla says to the picture, "You'll be happy with me. You remember that alien I told you about," then he says with a mockingly sing-song voice, "~Super-man~" before he goes on in his regular voice, "I figured out a way to neutralize his powers. By this time next week, the man of steel will be the man of just as human as everyone else." the Gorilla says smiling, "I know you hate it when we have to kill the lesser life forms." he says to who ever he is talking too. If she pulls up the history of the video and digitally enhances the picture it's actually of Grodd in what appears to be a kind of military uniform standing with his arm around a smaller female Gorilla who is holding a baby... Grodd's wife? 
"Recently there has been an influx of heroes from the future. I'm not sure what to do about them. I'm thinking of assembling a team of temporal experts and trying to construct a shield to prevent time travel. Maybe I can stop them from showing up here or perhaps I can send out a tachyon wave that will scatter them into alternate time lines. As long as they are not in my time line I don't really care. " then the gorilla sighs and says, "Yes, yes, I know, messing with time-space can lead to the destruction of the universe. I'm not going to do any more damage, I just want to send them back to where ever they came from and stop them from coming back. It's better than killing them right?" he asks the imaginary person he is talking to. "Not that I wouldn't mind killing that Brainiac Five. He really bugs me. So smug, so arrogant. He didn't even have the common decency to be even the slightest bit afraid of me! It was insulting! Arrogant little son of .." but then he's cut off by the voice in his head and he smiles, "You're right, you're right. I shouldn't let the little things get to me. Lets stop talking about work." he says turning his large body so he is snuggled up into the cushions of the couch, "Lets just be happy.." he says then he reaches up to rub his eyes. It's hard to tell with his back to the camera but it sounds like he's trying not to cry, "We'll be happy like old time." 
Holy Planet-of-the-Apes, Batman? 
Barbara makes a note to send out a couple of her operatives to deal with the gun shipment. Sounds like something Huntress and Q might enjoy, if Dinah's not around. Because, really, Oracle has no intention of letting another gun running op startup in her city. There are enough guns in the world as it is. 
Which, of course, reminds her... She pulls up her calendar and dictates: "Touch base with Stark and Ted about equipment." A beat. "Make that Potts and Ted. And see about dinner."
Right. Moving on. 
She starts pulling up her old surveillance on the ape from the last week, to cross reference just what he's trying to do to Superman -- if that's there, somewhere. WIth any luck, Big Blue will get back to her with the legal JLA access points before too much longer. That'll help. 
She also starts a background process to pull up all the research on gorillas and higher level related non-homo-genus primates she can get her hands on. And anything that looks like it might hold a reference to intelligent gorillas, time travel, etc. It's a huge search, and it will take a while. But, basically, it's time to back track and see if she can figure out where he's come from.
Another dicta entry: "Cross reference Flash research file fragments with current Flash-related heroes." Someone there might know something, too... if she can figure out how best to contact them.
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