Faces of the Spider (Adventurers)

Faces of the Spider is a story arc of The Adventurers super group that began in January of 2016. When the monster form of Red Spider returns, the team assumes that Cassandra has lost control for the first time in more than a year since she was afflicted with an engineered mutation virus. Matters become complicated when another Cassandra - the real one - is located in the rubble of the monster's first attack site, a cloning laboratory belonging to Source Biotech Enterprises. With UNTIL maintaining the monster (now in human form) in their custody, the team must attend a secret court hearing meant to determine the clone's fate - and in the process, defend the team's actions going back nearly two years.

Characters

County Prosecutor George Kruger

Kruger's office boasts an 80% conviction record for felonies. As Millennium City's chief public prosecutor, he has made numerous statements excoriating costumed vigilantes.

UNTIL Captain Chris Suzuki

A representative from UNTIL's Officer of Superhuman Resources, Suzuki approaches the Adventurers to warn them and give them an opportunity. UNTIL has to turn Red Spider's clone over to the MCPD as the organization must defer to local authorities in cases like this. However, UNTIL appreciates the Adventurers past assistance and has used some of its clout to give the Adventurers a chance with a secret hearing to gain the clone's freedom. Suzuki warns that the prosecutor will do everything he can to see the matter of the clone referred to a public trail.

Court Transcripts

Opening Remarks

George Kruger, Prosecutor

Ahem. Thank you, your honor. Today I am privileged to be a part of a precedent setting case in many respects. We are dealing with not only the rights of cloned individuals - an area of case law that to date is quite barren - and the rights of persons who are cloned. But as the duly elected prosecutor for this county, I must represent the grave concerns to public safety represented in this case. It will be presented that on February 1st of this year, there was an attack on this city. Lives were lost. And our case will show that this was one-hundred percent preventable. A collection of costumed vigilantes, colorfully calling themselves 'The Adventurers', have repeatedly bucked the law to do their own thing. The county demands high standards of accountability for our protectors. Our protectors - our best protectors - wear uniforms, badges, and can be required to answer for their crimes. These costumed rogues do not meet that standard. In my case I will easily point out numerous times when they have flagrantly broke the laws of our ordered society. But let's not lose sight of our true focus here - the fate the defendant. If this person, who is known to have great destructive power, is not required to go to trial, but is left in the stewardship of these vigilantes... God help us all. Our case will be that the matter should go to trial, and let the public know of a potential danger in their midst. Let a duly appointed court, possibly a jury of peers, decide the fate of the monster. That is all.

In the hands of this establishment lies the hands of a woman, a woman made of flesh and blood, thought and emotion. A human being! A human being who was brought into this world with ill intent in mind, but one who can still choose her own path just as any of us has. Yet again we will assert that the circumstances of her birth do not...no.../never/ merit treating her as a so-called monster! Our group is not free from error, I will be the first to admit...but our track record of bettering our own stands for itself. We are here now. We will guide her if that is her wish. I beg you, Your Honor, do not set the precedent that this nation may once again be free to hate and persecute... That is all.

MCPD Officer Martin Staniel

Staniel was a responder during the original Red Spider Monster attacks of July 10, 2014. He attended a police perimeter set up when the Adventurers cornered the monster in Little Italy, and the subsequent stand-off when the Adventurers absconded with the subdued monster rather than turn it over to the authorities.

Testimony to come.

Supporting storylines

"Company of Carnage"

UNTIL Agent Christopher Suzuki speaks to independent costumed hero White Star. UNTIL is concerned about Source Biotech's secret projects, the cloning lab and monster attack exposing just one of numerous compartmentalized R&D labs rumoured to exist. They present a risk to public safety given SBE's interest in developing marketable meta-human products & a lax ethical and safety record.

White Star is on the trail of James Landon, an SBE employee at the cloning lab where the Red Spider clone was created. Landon was not among the many employees killed when the clone transformed into the monster and escaped. White Star has determined that Landon had a laptop in his possession, and had performed some kind of experiment for which White Star found the data, but doesn't yet understand the context.