It was near nightfall, and they had been tramping southward for an hour. The area on this side of the temple was well trod; this was the hunting grounds of Gorillo. His passage left crushed trees and huge footprints in the soft mud. Soon, the pathway became more well-defined, with stones pressed into the path and the skulls of fallen tribal men lining the way. Gorillo was a thinking creature. And he collected trophies.

      Mikah felt himself swallow hard.

      Doc carried a huge console on his shoulder but seemed unaffected. He had said it ‘only’ weighed a few tons, so he seemed unburdened by it. Mikah was still working on grasping the fundamentals of earth science, so Doc’s explanations about phase projectors, polarization, negative flux generators and molecular decompression had left Mikah with a rudimentary understanding of the plan: punch the monkey until it was knocked out, and then hit it with a shrink ray Doc had managed to cobble together from the various machinery in the temple.

      The plan seemed ridiculous, but then again Mikah was a mutant explorer on a jungle island fighting for albino tribesmen alongside a man who could lift a tank and had bulletproof skin, and they were about to go against a giant monkey… ridiculous was kind of his wheelhouse now.

***

      Shortly past nightfall they arrived to find Gorillo crouched at the center of a great clearing. He had uprooted trees and trampled foliage to create a wild hall for himself, cut into the middle of the jungle. He had fashioned something like a seat, built a fire, and was roasting something like a huge boar on a spit; Mikah was reminded of a cub scout roasting a marshmallow. This was one smart monkey.

      “Gorillo!” Doc shouted. He was not one for stealth. Jynx and Zirah, who both were, had already moved into the shadows on Doc’s left and right, and were flanking the ape, looking for an advantage. He was a thirty-foot tall gorilla. They weren’t likely to find many weak spots.

      Mikah stood on a narrow ridge overlooking the den, next to the car-sized device Doc had just set down. Doc strode down the slope into the clearing, beating at his chest. Gorillo rose and answered in kind, beating his own chest and emitting a yell that shook the whole island. They charged at each other.

      Doc took two big bounds and on the third leapt upwards, this jump taking him almost fifty feet into the air. He traveled more distance than Gorillo had expected, and the ape inadvertently lead with his chin right into a mighty right hook. This sent Gorillo tumbling backwards, falling into a copse of trees. Jynx barely skittered out of the way in time to avoid being crushed.

      For a moment it appeared that this had actually stunned him, but Gorillo quickly shook this off. Doc had clearly packed more of a wallop than anything that this creature had ever encountered, but it wasn’t enough to stop him. He rose and charged at Doc, landing a series of blows. An uppercut, uppercut, jab, and haymaker followed in quick succession.

      Mikah and Doc realized it at the same moment. Doc hesitated, and this was long enough for the huge ape to pummel him 4’ into the mud with a huge fist.

      Mikah whispered, “Heartland…”

      Zirah had emerged from the shadows, cutting a series of deep gashes into Gorillo’s calf. The huge ape howled in rage and pain. He shook his foot sideways, casting Zirah into the thick foliage. Her tumult made no sound, but she collapsed about fifty feet away in a pile of thick vines.

      Jynx joined the fray. His flight reminded Mikah of a hummingbird; he buzzed up to the gorilla’s nose and was swatting at its face. This was little more than an annoyance, and the huge ape swatted back. This was too much face for even Jynx to think about eating.

      Mikah considered how he could help. He had basic combat training, but he didn’t think the trips or arm bars he had learned in fundamentals of self-defense would be much use against a gorilla that was as big as a house. He thought about trying to activate the shrink ray machine but had nary the faintest idea how that might happen.

      The good news was that he didn’t need to. Doc had bounded here after pulling himself out of the muck. He was covered in filth, and his smile had shifted to a serious squaring of the jaw. He pulled the side of the mechanism away, revealing a vast internal jungle of wires and diodes and circuit boards. He dove into this with fervor, unplugging wires from one board and plugging them into another, splitting wires in two and twisting them with other wires. He whispered to himself, “have to reverse the polarity and reroute the power through the flux capacitor…”

      Then, Mikah had to assume, he did that. Whatever that was.

      Heartland as giant gorilla had finished dealing with the nuisance that was Jynx, swatting the imp with a firm backhand that shot him in an arc across the sky towards the far side of the island.

      Its gaze moved to the ridge where Mikah now stood next to the machine, a machine into which Doc Stalwart had buried his head, arms, and torso. Gorillo snarled. Then a dozen spears bounded off its chest and shoulders. A few more stuck in, but the greatest of the apes brushed them off and looked around. Many of the tribesmen had emerged from the jungle, and they were now pelting Gorillo with a barrage of spears. These he mostly ignored, scanning the group until he found his greatest desire: the shield, and the man wielding it.

      Instantly forgetting about Doc Stalwart and his small companion (for which Mikah was quite grateful), Gorillo charged, swinging a mighty fist in a huge arc down on the man. The fist hit the upraised shield and immediately rebounded, sending Gorillo falling backwards into the trees. Gorillo recovered and swiped at the man. The tribal leader deftly used the shield to deflect the swipe, which landed instead on a medium-sized tree, cracking it and sending dozens of coconuts in all directions. Gorillo was preparing for his trademark movement of a hail of blows when Mikah heard Doc’s familiar commanding voice, “Gorillo!”

      Doc had again lifted the machine, setting it across his shoulder and pointing the projector in Gorillo’s direction. The ape bounded once, twice, and then Doc pushed a button. A yellow ray burst from the machine, striking Gorillo in flight, and sending him falling into a thick section of foliage. The tribesmen moved carefully towards the broken brush, but Doc bounded ahead of them, dropping the machine on its side and taking three huge leaps to get to where the mighty monkey had fallen. A minute later, he emerged helping an old man who was almost as big as he was, and who had a beard that extended beyond his waist, back to the trail.

***

Mikah spent the next several hours at the periphery of activity. There was a dinner, but he understood none of the banter. He sat at a far edge of the temple complex, watching as Zirah sharpened her sword in silence and Jynx tended his wounds by licking them. His tongue seemed to drop a kind of brown acid that both burned at comforted him at the same time.

      After several rounds of toasts, Doc lead the old man away from the gathering and towards Mikah and the two oddities with him. He supposed that made them three oddities altogether. The old man, who Mikah presumed was Heartland, spoke.

      “So… this is the young man who found me?” He smiled. Did the Freedom Formula make you smile like that, too? He shook Mikah’s hand with the same firmness and self-control that Doc had exhibited.

      “Welcome back, Mr. Heartland.” Mikah said. He realized how stupid that sounded as soon as he said it.

      “Oh, I’m not back…” Heartland corrected, “at least, not as you might think it. No. The world has gone on. My home is here now.”

      Mikah went to disagree but stopped himself.

      Heartland was an old man to be sure, but a deep strength still abided, “I have done great damage to these people. To this land. I will stay and make it right. I trust you can keep my secret…”

      “... yes sir…”

      Heartland patted Mikah on the shoulder. He almost said something else, but then he just held his smile again and turned to rejoin the tribe of which he was now the leader. The last thing Mikah saw was Heartland holding his shield again as the men came around him.

***

The flight back to the Citadel of Tomorrow was quiet for several hours. In his cage, Jynx chased something in sleep, hissing and clawing at an imaginary target. But Zirah had reduced this to a pantomime. When it got to the point where Mikah could bear it no more, he cut the silence, “I’m glad that you got to meet your hero.”

      Doc nodded. He was still trying to process it. Mikah realized that this was, in many ways, the third-grade version of the boy who would become Doc Stalwart he was speaking with now.

      Doc activated the autopilot and turned towards Mikah. He had the most serious expression Mikah had yet seen him display. He was mulling something over.

      “I’ve wondered my whole life if I would ever see Heartland again. Within a day, you led me to him.”

      Mikah shrugged. He supposed that was true. He hadn’t really thought of it that way.

      “I need to know something.” Doc had taken his right hand and set it over his left. He was playing with a ring. Mikah realized for the first time that Doc wore a wedding band.

      “My wife and I were a team. She was… lost… some time ago,” he squared his jaw at the memory, “and I need to know. If she is gone.”

      He pulled off the ring and held it out. Mikah felt a new wave of perspiration on his palms.

      Doc dropped it into his hands. Mikah felt its weight. Right away, he saw things clearly. There was no muddy water to dive through to search for remnants. It was simple, clear, and precise in the way that absolute truth always is.

      “She is gone,” Mikah said.

      Doc nodded, took the ring back, slipped it back to its place, and took the Beetle off autopilot.

      Mikah was sad that he knew this with such certainty. But he was also confused. Because he knew something else. Yes, Doc’s wife was dead. But he also knew two other things with equal conviction.

      Doc’s daughter was alive. And Mikah couldn’t tell him.