Marvel: Rise of the Ultimate AI
Chapter 119: The Hive

The so-called "god" in Baron Strucker's eyes… was in truth an ancient and terrifyingly powerful Inhuman. His name: Hive.

To understand Hive, we must first talk about the experiments the Kree once conducted on Earth.

Seeking to create superior warriors—more precisely, expendable cannon fodder—for their endless interstellar wars, a splinter faction of the Kree initiated a project on Earth known as the Inhuman Warriors Program. They experimented on primitive human DNA, genetically manipulating it to produce a new race: the Inhumans.

And Hive… was their first creation.

To the early Inhumans, Hive was a living god—an absolute authority. He wielded immense power and carried within him an instinctive aura of domination, one designed by the Kree to help maintain order and control over their experimental subjects. But despite the worship, Hive was merely a glorified servant in the eyes of the Kree.

It wasn't until civil strife broke out among the Kree stationed on Earth—and the entire Inhuman experiment was abandoned—that Hive finally saw his opportunity. No longer shackled by his creators, Hive rose from lowly servant to ruler of the Inhumans.

But power corrupted quickly.

The desire to rule, long suppressed under the Kree's boot, exploded forth. As Hive took control of the Inhumans with increasing tyranny, many of them rose up in revolt. A coalition of powerful Inhumans finally devised a way to banish Hive to a distant, lifeless alien world.

And now, centuries later… Baron Strucker had brought him back.

The Hive, trapped alone for so long, had gone nearly feral. Starved and psychologically fragmented, he needed human life as nourishment—to regenerate his physical body and restore his mind.

"Food..." Hive uttered once more, his voice low and ghastly.

"Go. Find more humans," Baron Strucker commanded.

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Loud music blared from the top floor of the Avengers Tower in New York. Stark was buried in his lab, hyper-focused on an intricate piece of tech, bobbing his head to the beat.

"Sir," JARVIS's voice interrupted the booming bass.

"Jarvis, how many times do I have to tell you? Don't interrupt me when I'm in the zone—especially when I've got good music going," Stark replied without looking up.

"You're still as tireless as ever, Tony," came a familiar voice.

Stark paused. "What, Reed? You fight with Susan again? Look, I've said it before—marriage is the graveyard of love. And you just had to dive in so young…"

Reed Richards rolled his eyes. "No, I didn't fight with Susan. I came to talk to you about something important."

"Oh, let me guess. Your research hit a wall and now you've come crawling to the genius billionaire playboy philanthropist?" Stark grinned, sipping from a glass of juice.

Reed didn't bother replying to the sarcasm—he was used to it. Instead, he called up data on a holographic screen. "Tony, have you been following the global news? Something strange is happening in the world's oceans."

"Jarvis, what's this about?" Stark asked, narrowing his eyes at the footage now playing on the screen.

"Sir, I broadcast the world news to you every morning. You never listen. I even added it to your to-do list… which, I must say, is 83% unfinished."

Stark's face reddened. "That many…?"

But as he studied the data Reed had brought, his expression turned serious. Strange changes in ocean behavior. Rising sea levels. Shifts in marine life. None of it made sense from a purely environmental standpoint.

"Sir," JARVIS interrupted again, "I regret to inform you—our satellite systems have just detected a worldwide tsunami outbreak."

The room's holographic screen flickered, showing massive tidal waves surging across oceans, pulling vast amounts of debris with them… and hurtling toward New York.

"No way that's natural…" Stark muttered.

"I'll go check it out." The floor panels slid open, and pieces of Iron Man's armor flew out, magnetically assembling around him. With a blast of orange-red energy from his repulsors, Stark shot into the sky like a comet, rocketing toward the shoreline.

Reed watched him go and sighed. "Impatient as always."

Climbing into a nearby Quinjet, Reed activated its systems and took off after Stark, heading straight for the heart of the disaster.

__

By the time they arrived, the tsunami had already struck the city. Towering waves had dumped tons of refuse onto the streets of New York. Plastic bags, shattered cars, bottles, tires, rusted electronics—every kind of human-made trash imaginable now flooded the city like a rotting tide.

Oddly, the tsunami itself hadn't caused significant physical damage to the buildings. Its true devastation lay in the mess.

New York had been transformed into a trash city.

"How's it look on your end?" Reed's voice echoed through the comms.

Stark, hovering above the flooded streets, scanned the landscape. "I don't see any direct damage. Just… garbage. Tons of it."

Then he frowned.

A strange thought crept into his mind—an unsettling suspicion that this was more than a natural event or a freak environmental disaster.

"This… almost feels like a warning," Stark muttered. "A message."

"A message?" Reed asked.

"Yeah," Stark replied grimly. "It's like someone's sending a statement. A declaration. Against us. Against the people on land."

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