Doc Samson is at the bottom of the river, battling the gamma-powered monster; he
escapes briefly to find his patient Lorna Dane is trying to contact him and
then the monster drags him to the bottom again….
Reporter
Rudy Pinkerton arrives at the police position and tries to get Detective Trina
Sharp to give him the scoop; the angry cop seizes his tape record and throws it
in the river….
Meanwhile,
She-Hulk, racing to the scene is grabbed in an alley by Patchwork; she fights
back but he slowly drains her gamma until she is the weak Jen Walters again.
Patchwork drags off his two victims, Jen and the green-eyed girl he sought….
At
the same time, the monster that has Samson at the bottom of the river changes
its form, becoming smaller and weaker. Doc is able to beat it and haul it to
the surface. Sharp is delighted to close the case but Doc has some bad news:
Patchwork is a man but the creature he just captured is female. Pinkerton, too
far away to hear this last part, calls in to his paper to report the Patchwork
Killer has been caught….
After
the creature is locked up, Samson searches through a box of his gear and comes
out with the special Geiger Counter he created to track individual gamma
signatures. He turns it on and it shows their captive’s signature changing to
match Samson’s, revealing her to be able to copy other radiation patterns.
Samson interviews the creature to gain an insight into the real killer’s mind,
as she describes staking and capturing a green-eyed woman; Samson then has to
talk the copycat through her madness, bringing her out of Patchwork’s mental
pattern to match Samson’s. The young woman, whom Doc dubs “Geiger,” has to be
convinced she is not the real Patchwork Killer but can help then find him. A
mob, incensed by the news report that the Killer has been captured, storms the
police station. Doc Samson goes to address the mob, telling them that they do
not have the Patchwork Killer on the premises—but the crowd does not believe
him. Samson tears up a length of railroad track to use as a barricade. Inside,
Geiger, seeing through the Killer’s eyes, learns that he has been disappointed:
the green-eyed girl he kidnapped is really wearing green contacts over her
natural blue eyes. Geiger now knows he is going to strike again. Outsid, Doc
meets the mother of one of the first victims and pledges to the crowd he will
capture Patchwork before he kills again; he then gives the mother his card so
she can contact him later. He reenters the building to learns that a) Geiger
knows when and where the Killer is going to strikes gain, and b) she is going
with him, having donned his old costume found among his effects.