Rat City. A crazed STREET PREACHER holds a boy against his will. His weapons are his madness and his body wrapped in grenades. Several cops are blown to shreds helplessly trying to free the boy from the preachers grasp. An angry cop takes out his frustration on Gareb. Spawn is forced to intercede, and violently attacks the rampaging officer. Angered by the cops abuse of power, he leaves the cop pinned to a wall as a message to others.

Meanwhile, Jason Wynn's political puppet, Senator McMillian is hard on the campaign trail. Wynn is unhappy with several of the Senator's political moves and suggests that he follow his directions more closely. Wynn has a strangle hold on the senator and the senator must obey. To make matters worse Wynn has caught wind that Wanda is digging around the personnel data bases in search of facts to uncover the child killer cover-up.

The Alley. Detectives Burke and Twitch search the alleys for evidence of a kidnapping perpetrated by the psychotic priest. They realize that the alley is the same one where the reporter's body was found, in addition to being the dumping ground for the currently at-large child-killer. Not to mention some of Antonio Twistelli's recently slaughtered hit men. Twitch suspects the coincidence isn't one at all, but is ordered to pursue it later by Burke, who is anxious to collar the priest.

Burke and Twistelli are startled by a dying cop in the alleyway stuffed into a shopping cart. Spawn had pinned the cop to a cement wall, but the joyride was the priest's doing. The cops dying words refer enigmatically to Spawn: "Red...cloak..."

Clown tracks down Billy Kincaid, and hands the child killer an invitation. It reads: "FRESH MEAT...AND WHAT A TREAT! 13970 RUNYON." The address just happens to be one of Antonio Twistelli's safe houses. Across town Wanda's life takes a horrifying turn when she receives a frightening call telling her that Max has been murdered. When she returns, she finds that Cyan is nowhere to be found. She has been kidnapped.

Back in the alley, Spawn spends his time preparing for the next onslaught of violence. He loads and reloads his stolen arsenal. Cogiostro tells Spawn that his mission has become too personal. Spawn rejects the old man's condemnation and explains that he was trained to be a killer. Then out of the darkness, Spawn hears of Cyan's kidnapping. He stands, and disappears.

Outside the alley, Burke, Twitch and the SWAT team have the crazed priest cornered, but he still has the boy. A sharpshooter fires a well placed slug into the preachers head. The preacher drops. It appears the situation is over, until the preacher sits, compliments the officers shooting, then pulls the pins on all of the grenades. The explosion is massive, but luckily for the boy, Spawn has come from the darkness to save him.

Finally, having chosen a side, and released of some inner guilt the warrior is now free to pursue his personal mission. God help those in his path.

As the scene fades, the true face of the preacher is exposed. It is Clown trying to shake things up. At the safe house a special guest has appeared to take Cyan from the hands of the kidnappers who have acted on Wynn's behalf. The guest is Billy Kincaid, the child killer, and he's more than pleased to see the little girl.