Symbiote Surprise (comic story)

Symbiote Surprise was a fifteen-page comic story. It was part of the Kate Five series, and the work of its creator, James Bridger alias Cyberkitten01; however, it was also an authorised crossover with Paul Hoppe's The Cosmic Beholder, prominently featuring the Odds.

Although released between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 of Kate Five, it was an interquel slotting between Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. Like the webcomic it issued from, it included some amount of NSFW content.

When British metahuman Kate Five shows up at the door of the Fortress of Evening, Armstrong Fatbuckle is the first to hear her, and guilelessly opens the door for. To his shock, Kate, after ascertaining the location of the other Odds, quickly attacks him, managing to disassemble him and hiding his scattered bones in a couple of filing cabinets.

On the roof of the building, she finds Captain Evening, Merv the Griffin, the Blue Knight, Jung-La and Centennia and convinces them to play a drinking game with her, using a bottle of liquor she brought (which, unbeknownst to them, is drugged). The unsuspecting Odds go down one by one until it's just Kate and Centennia, who, being an “excellent poker player”, has only drunk a small amount of drugged alcohol. Kate begins to think back to the crush she developed on Kate when they first met, and vice-versa.

However, Centennia, despite her thoughts beginning to grow dim, realises that Kate is up to no good. She gets up on shaking legs and tries to fight Kate, who transforms to her symbiote form. Kate gains the upper hand and nearly chokes the life out of Centennia, but the heroine is unexpectedly saved by Armstrong's disembodied right arm, which managed to free itself from the filing cabinet. Taking advantage of the distraction provided by the thrashing arm, Centennia punches Kate into the bell of the Fortress's belltower. The vibrating, ringing sound dissociates the symbiote from Kate, who regains her free will and promptly loses consciousness.

When Kate comes to, she is in bed, attended to by Centennia, the Captain, Armstrong and the Blue Knight. She is in tears, crushed by the guilt of the evil acts she undertook even on her closest friends while under the symbiote's influence, but the heroes reassure her that they don't blame her for any of it and still consider her a friend. Despite the more concerning fact that Merv and Jung-La, despite a sweep on the area, have yet to locate the symbiote itself, it is a happy ending in the Fortress, and Centennia and Kate share a kiss.

A little later, after the Blue Knight helps Kate acquire some new clothes (since the symbiote had been acting as her outfit), she prepares back home, hoping her friend Taki will forgive her as easily as the Odds did. On her way out of the building, however, and unbeknownst to the Odds, the symbiote ambushes her and possesses her again.

Worldbuilding

Universes

This story takes place entirely in Reality Z-25 31-H.

Other

Armstrong Fatbuckle is referred to both as “the Living Skeleton” and as “the Human Skeleton” in caption boxes.

Continuity

Centennia's outfit in the flashback to Kate Five's first encounter with the Odds suggests that this encounter came in the form of Kate Five being present at the superhero party seen at the end of COMIC: Meanwhile, On Earth.
The Fortress of Evening's belltower, first seen in COMIC: For Whom The Toll Bells, is once again put to plot-relevant use.
COMIC: The Search For Kate Five, a second crossover, this time drawn by Paul Hoppe on the Cosmic Beholder end of the crossover, served as a sequel to this story.

Behind the scenes

Read online

Symbiote Surprise is available online on DeviantArt.