Inside the wild and beautiful jungles of South Africa one could hear the charming sound of the birds that lived inside be disturbed as they listened to two creatures that moved swiftly and with great agility around the trees. One had the powers of the beast inside of the body of a man while the other was a man trapped inside the body of a beast; both of them were champions of justice who had been almost completely forgotten by the world at large.
Their names were Congorilla and Animal man and they could be considered Forgotten heroes, Congo Bill didn’t really consider himself a hero though and preferred to hide in the jungles of the various countries of Africa where he could live as simply an outsider, finding real peace and calm in the company of the animals that shared their home with him.
Buddy Backer was quite the opposite though, even though he had served on the legendary Justice League he had never remained as an active superhero for long periods of time. Every time the world or San Diego was in great need of a protector from threats that needed more than only Superman or Wonder Woman there was Animal Man ready to lend a hand, however for Buddy the first thing was always his family.
Over the years many heroes had raised their concerns about the lack of importance that Animal Man displayed when thinking of acting as a superhero instead of taking care of his wife and kids even though they all kind of understood it.
Animal man suddenly got tired of running as a deer and instead started to fly like an eagle over the trees, he then turned around to see his golden friend. “I am listening with the capabilities of a dolphin and looking for any scent with my abilities of the daspletosaurus and yet I don’t find anything, are you sure about this Bill?”
The golden gorilla simply kept moving without losing a lot of energy in the process and turned back at Animal Man. “I am sure. This man dressed in yellow, whoever he is has been doing something on the jungle for weeks now.” Animal man started to fly higher than before and then started to use the sight of the mantis shrimp in order to have a better look at the jungle from the above and yet no one was there except for the two heroes.
Suddenly, Animal Man got a new scent that magically appeared in the middle of the jungle like if someone had teleported. “There!” Buddy yelled as he pointed to the direction where he had sensed his enemy, however as he turned to try to discover the identity of the mysterious man he couldn’t find him no matter how well he looked at the area, no one was there. Animal Man descended to the ground to meet with his friend and then with a face of disappointment turned to Congorilla. “He is gone, must have teleported again when he listened to me.” Started to explain the human zoo before he felt a strong torrent of air being released behind him.
“Noooooot-teeeeleportatiooooooon Aaaaniiiimaaaaaaalmaaaaaaan, tiiiiiime manipulatioooooooooon” said the man in yellow behind the two heroes and then proceeded to punch both of them with such a great strength that sent both of them flying away. The man that they had been chasing was none other than Hunter Solomon, better known as Zoom an enemy of Wally West aka the Flash.
Just like Animal man was able to tap into the power of Earth’s morphogenetic field in order to do as he pleased with the abilities of any animal that ever existed Zoom counts with a similar ability, he has access to the time that flows relative to him and is able to alter it at his will making him move faster than even the Flash.
As the two heroes fall to the ground the healing factor of Congorilla kicks in so that he can recover from the punches of Zoom, on the other hand Animal Man gains access to the healing capabilities of the lizard in order to regenerate from the punch thrown to him by their new enemy. “Guess that explains why we weren’t able to find him. Let’s call the league” proposes Buddy as he cleans the blood from his face.
“We can make it on our own” said Congorilla and then started to grow in a big way, followed by a punch directed to Zoom, however as expected even before the fist was really launched the enemy had already left the area without any trouble. “Where is he?” but before the gorilla was able to react Zoom appeared in front of him and started to throw various punches towards him on the chest taking the air out of the golden gorilla and making him almost fall unconscious. Seeing his friend in need Animal Man gained the speed of the cheetah and the relative strength of an ant and rushed to defend Congo Bill from their attacker, however just like before as soon as he was about to reach him the man disappeared leaving no trace.
“Bill, are you ok?” asks Buddy Baker without stopping to look all around the area in search for any clue of where Zoom is. “Something is wrong here.” Mentions Animal Man to his comrade and former teammate and then continues his search for the infamous villain. “You are right; we cannot beat him on our own, call the league.” Requested the man trapped in the body of a gorilla as his healing factor finally lets him get up. “That’s not what I mean.” Replies Animal Man and then once again takes flight in order to scan the area. “Every now and then Wonder Woman and I talk and when we do we can’t help but to talk about superheroes and supervillains. She once told me that thanks to his speed, Zoom hit stronger than Superman.”
“Your point is?” asked Congorilla as he once again grew in size to try to find the villain himself as the human zoo was taking too long to do so by himself. “We are here fighting him alone; we’ve received various hits from him and are still unconscious. Does that sound like something that would happen if we were fighting a bloodlust Superman?” after that question the gorilla remained silent for awhile, unable to find the right answer to that question. “He is playing with us right now, why I don’t know.”
“Thaaaaaaaathaaasalways been ooooneofyour prrrooooblems BuuuddyBaaacker” the voice of Zoom was heard one second before the two of them were hit and almost left unconscious again before their healing factors kicked in. “Plaaaaaaying?” asked Zoom enraged as he grabbed Animal Man by the neck but without causing any kind of damage, Congorilla was as of yet still unable to move after the last wave of attacks. “Foooooryouthiiiiisherobuuusines-has aaaalways been more about a hoooooobbythana reeeeeeeal jooooob.” He then threw Buddy against a tree; as soon as he hit it the villain had moved next to him and was grabbing an old photograph featuring Buddy along with his wife and two children. “Nooootiimeforheroicseeeeeverytimeeeethebraaaaatsneeeedsomething...”Zoom then broke the picture and punched Animal Man once again on the chest; the man couldn’t help but to throw up. “Aaaallllthaaatpooowerandforwhaaaaaaaat? WhaaatdoooyoutellllllyourchildreeeenwhentheyseeeeeonTVthatsomeonedieeeeedandtheirdaddydidn’tevengo?”
Now a kick went towards Animal Man and he fell to the ground unable to move, as great as his abilities to heal were Zoom was simply faster than them. “Yoooouuuuwillllllbeeeebeeetteerandthenyoushaaallllprotecttheworldjustlikeyouaresuppossedtoooooo” Solomon was preparing to give the last punch just before a forgotten gorilla punched him with all of his might sending him a few meters away.
Congorilla then tried to continue his attack but found the hard way that Zoom too heals pretty quick when he wants and is untouchable when he decides to be. As strong as the hits from Congorilla were none of them landed making this fight completely one-sided. “Maybeawomaaaaaanintherefrigeratooorcanheelp” said Zoom and then started to punch as fast as he could. In exactly 0.00054 seconds Zoom had hit Bill around 10000 times making the man fall unconscious and about to die, however now it was the time of the gorilla to be saved and so a blast of energy was released against Zoom, he however was able to avoid it this time.
“Thank you Bill, those few seconds were all I needed.” Having said that Animal man started to glow and moved at superspeed closer to zoom and then released a blast of energy incredibly powerful that sent Zoom flying backwards. “You are right Zoom; I needed to step my game up which is why during my one year trip on space the same aliens that gave me my powers upgraded my powers so that I now share a connection with any creature in the entire universe.” As Zoom tried to use his speed to punch several times at Animal man he discovered that Animal Man not only was able to see him now somehow but also be able to block all of his punches.
“Youuuuucanseeeemeee?” asked Zoom astonished, the only time someone had been able to move that fast around him was when Wally stole the speed of Jay Garrick, Kid Flash and Jesse Quick in order to keep up with him, where was Animal man taking his speed from? “I do. As I was saying I can grab powers from any animal in the entire universe that includes the sun eaters which are powerful enough that they enable me to enter Space-B. A place that has no spot in either space or time and since you can’t alter the time around me to use your powers, right now you are powerless.”
Having said that Animal man grabbed the strength of his unconscious friend and used it to knock-out Zoom. As he was carrying both him and the unconscious Congorilla the golden member of the new Justice League started to regain consciousness. “Wh…at happened?” asked the creature and then let himself get dropped so that he could continue on his own.
“It’s over, we won.”
“No, you did.” Said the animal with a smile and then started to run so that he could keep up with his friend. “We should take him to the headquarters of the League, I’m sure Donna and Batman have the number of the Flash somewhere so that he can pick him up and drop him on iron heights.”
Animal man then descended to the ground and gave the villain to his friend before departing on his own by flying again. “You do that, I promised the kids that I would take them to the San Diego Zoo today after I was done.” Congorilla surprised by the declaration of his friend started to carry Solomon on his back. “I hate to say it, but he was right. You are destined to be bigger than this, with your powers you could be the world’s new greatest hero if you only take it serious this whole saving the world job.”
“I take it seriously.” Answered Buddy and then started to fly as an eagle once again in order to don’t miss any other moment, after that he once again grabbed the power of the sun eater in order to reach America in a couple of seconds. But before he left he looked one last time at his old friend and said a few words. “But it is still just a job, my family is my world” and having said that Buddy Backer was gone in a flash of light and Congorilla was left with the tiresome task of doing the paperwork.
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