Epitome Comics #3: “Along Came a Spider”



Reverend Clayton Davis was brought to a small room away from the general visiting area. The guards, whom he did not recognize, removed his shackles and exited.


“Where’s my lawyer?” the head of SEED demanded, “You can’t talk to me unless my lawyer is here.”


A pair of men joined Davis in the room. One in full military uniform, the other wearing a slate grey suit.


“Reverend Davis, I’m Colonel Fitzsimmons. We need to speak with you, off the record. It is in your best interest to cooperate, sir.”


Davis scowled, “You can go to hell.”


The other man, the civilian, perched himself on the edge of the table close enough to Davis for him to find his position uncomfortable.


“I have nothing to say to you either, spook,” the reverend told him as he inched his chair away.


“Mister Epitome found your safe,” the man in gray told him plainly. Shrugging, “Yanked it out from the floor and ripped the door right off.”


Davis looked stricken.


“Whatever you kept in there, he’s got it now. Which, given how much effort you put in securing it, makes us assume is not good for you.”


“How can you let that psycho run free?!” Davis sputtered, “He’s breaking more laws and doing more damage than I have ever been accused of!”


Colonel Fitzsimmons nodded, “Your country agrees with you, sir. That’s why I’m here. In exchange for your full cooperation in apprehending the fugitive, the President and the governor have both signed off on granting you immunity from any potential prosecution that might arise from your current situation.”


“I’m not making any deals until I meet with my attorney.”


“No lawyers, Rev,” Gray Suit explained, “Stakes are too high for them.”


“You’re in rarefied air here. This goes beyond some petty ante corruption charge or your right to due process,” Fitzsimmons’s tone became more severe, “Mister Epitome is a clear and present danger to the nation, and if you fail to help us secure his capture we will bury you so deep down you’ll come up in a different hemisphere.”


Gray chimed in, “Or, we’ll just let it slip you’re cooperating with us on investigating The Cluster and leave you to their tender mercies.”


Reverend Clayton Davis’s eyes bulged out from his head, and his face drained of color. He began to tremble.


“Hhm. Looks like we know what really scares you, huh, Rev?”


“Something’s wrong,” Fitzsimmons moved from his chair towards the increasingly convulsing prisoner, “He’s having some kind of seizure.”


“Damn it. He’s bugged,” Mister Grey leapt up and produced a stilletto.


“Bugged?! How- My Lord!” the officer watched as Grey wrapped an arm around Davis’s head and bent it forward to expose his neck. He could see a small bulge rising and writhing beneath the skin there.


“Grab him, Colonel! Hold him steady,” the agent shouted as he was buffeted by Davis’s wildly flailing arms. With Fitzsimmons’s help, he used the knife to cut an incision into the neck, then taking the tip of the blade to pry out the object buried inside: a tiny metallic bauble with several filaments trailing from it.


Reverend Davis screamed and broke away from the pair. Clutching at the wound, he did a faceplant on top of the table. After a final spasm he became motionless.


The guards rushed back in to the room, “Sir, what happened?”


“Go back outside,” Colonel Fitzsimmons ordered, “We will call you when we need you.”


Mister Grey turned Davis over and checked his breathing and heart rate, “Rapid but stable. It wasn’t enough to stop his heart, at least. It’ll take a CT scan to learn what effects the pulse had on his brain. We need to get him moved to Silver Springs Hospital immediately.”


“What just happened? What is that thing? Who or what is The Cluster?”


Aldrich Grey took his handkerchief and and used it to wrap up the gore stained bauble he had extracted from the reverend, “Classified, Fitzy. Though I can tell you Parodiopolis has more to worry about than just a super-powered vigilante.


“It’s infested.”




Next: “Trouble at the Waterfront”