Hive was, quite literally, the king of the Inhumans.
But he hadn’t started that way.
Long before human civilization had cities, kingdoms, or anything resembling history, he had been nothing more than a hunter living in a primitive tribe. He wasn’t some legendary warrior blessed with impossible strength, either. He was painfully ordinary.
His weapon was a wooden club with a sharpened animal bone lashed to the tip.
And no, despite what later legends might claim, it definitely wasn’t the legendary Spear of the Eagle.
Under the life he was originally meant to live, Hive should have died during a hunt. If he survived that, some minor fever or infection probably would have finished the job. In his era, almost nobody lived long enough to die peacefully of old age.
Then, one day, everything changed.
During a hunt, a blue-skinned Kree arrived from the heavens.
They found him.
They altered him.
And they gave him a purpose.
From that moment on, the ordinary hunter was gone.
To the Inhumans, he became their king. No matter how powerful or bizarre an Inhuman’s abilities were, they instinctively bowed before him.
To ordinary humans, he became something even greater.
A living god.
The founder of the Egyptian civilization. A divine ruler whose authority was beyond question.
But the truth was considerably less glorious.
Hive had become the Inhuman king because the Kree had given him the power and ordered him to gather his people. The kingdom he built from scattered primitive tribes existed because the Kree wanted to increase the human population and improve its quality, giving them more candidates from which to create additional Inhumans.
His divinity was a job.
His majesty was a uniform.
His throne was a leash.
To everyone watching from the outside, he was a king and a god.
In reality, he was a slave dressed in gold.
The distance between those two identities was enormous.
It wasn’t difficult to imagine how much resentment had been festering inside him all those years.
If I am king, then I should be free to do whatever I want.
When the Kree finally abandoned Earth, Hive’s chains were broken.
For the first time, he was truly free.
And Hive intended to enjoy every second of it.
He would indulge himself. He would rule all life beneath him. He would make every creature understand exactly what it meant to stand before a king.
Unfortunately, there was another ancient truth that Hive had apparently overlooked.
Oppression eventually creates rebellion.
Some Inhumans who had escaped his control joined forces with human slaves and managed to defeat him. They couldn’t kill him, but they found another solution.
They exiled him.
Forever.
Hive was cast onto another world.
Unfortunately, centuries of being treated like royalty had apparently done something permanent to his personality.
Even after arriving on an alien planet, Hive still wanted to be king.
As luck would have it, the planet wasn’t empty. It had intelligent life. It had cities. It had civilization.
Perfect.
Hive marched into one of those cities and essentially announced that he intended to become their new ruler.
Everyone should kneel.
Everyone should become his slave.
The locals, unsurprisingly, failed to appreciate the proposal.
They didn’t know who he was.
They didn’t care who he was.
And they certainly weren’t interested in kneeling before some strange creature who had appeared out of nowhere and declared himself their king.
That complete lack of respect drove Hive over the edge.
I was stripped of my throne.
I was exiled from my home.
And now you refuse to obey me?
Fine.
Die.
Hive destroyed their civilization.
He exterminated its people.
He devastated the planet’s ecosystem.
And that was how the world became the barren wasteland it was today.
The former king who had once basked in absolute authority and later unleashed his fury upon an entire civilization was now crouched in a corner, both hands wrapped around his knees, trembling.
Hive had been bored for a very, very long time.
Then, suddenly, he felt something familiar.
His eyes shifted.
A familiar energy signature.
Someone had arrived.
His mood changed instantly.
Food.
Entertainment.
After thousands of years, Hive had become accustomed to receiving visitors from Earth.
Every few decades, one or two humans would mysteriously appear on the dead planet.
From them, Hive had learned the truth.
There were still people on Earth who remained loyal to him.
They had never stopped trying to bring their king home.
And the humans they sent here?
Sacrifices.
Hive had never been particularly polite to his offerings.
He would play with them until they broke.
Then he would eat them.
And he didn’t consume only their flesh.
He consumed their memories as well.
That was one of his abilities. By devouring another being, Hive could absorb everything they knew.
It was because of this power that the legends surrounding cannibalism had taken root across human history. Tales claiming that consuming another person’s flesh could grant strength or supernatural abilities had all ultimately originated with Hive.
The ability also meant that, despite spending thousands of years away from Earth, Hive remained remarkably well informed about human civilization.
In some ways, he understood humanity better than humanity understood itself.
So when he sensed that familiar energy today, Hive immediately knew what had happened.
Hydra had sent him another meal.
Well, then.
He might as well go take a look.
Hive was thousands of years old, however. He hadn’t survived that long by being careless.
Before going anywhere, he mentally calculated the timing.
Something was wrong.
The next expected delivery wasn’t supposed to happen for several more years.
Why had Hydra sent someone now?
Had something changed?
Better safe than sorry.
Hive decided not to expose himself.
Instead, he separated a small portion of his body and transformed it into countless microscopic organisms. The tiny creatures dispersed into the air, riding the wind toward the arrival point.
This was Hive’s most important ability.
It was how he controlled the Inhumans.
The microscopic creatures were nearly impossible to detect. Once they entered an Inhuman’s brain, they could stimulate it in ways that profoundly altered the victim’s emotions and behavior.
Respect.
Affection.
Loyalty.
Obedience.
Under their influence, everything Hive said felt unquestionably correct.
Resistance became nearly impossible.
The insects suppressed the very thoughts that might lead an Inhuman to rebel against him.
It was the ultimate weapon Hive had once used to maintain his kingdom.
He hadn’t needed it for a very long time.
Now, however, it served another purpose.
Feeding.
And reconnaissance.
Hive’s microscopic swarm finally reached the arrival site.
Then he noticed something strange.
The new arrivals were already gone.
And they had moved fast.
Very fast.
That shouldn’t have been possible.
Humans weren’t that quick.
Hive considered the problem for a moment before remembering something.
A few years earlier, one of the groups sent from Earth had arrived carrying what looked like advanced aerospace equipment.
Maybe these people had brought one of those machines humans called a car.
That had to be it.
Hive guided his swarm after them, already imagining what it might be like to experience one of those vehicles for himself after he finished eating its owner.
After a long pursuit, his swarm finally tracked the newcomers into a valley.
But there was no car.
Hive paused.
There were three people.
Three.
And something about their presence was deeply wrong.
Two of them were women.
Both looked disturbingly similar to the creatures humans had described in their ancient legends as demons.
Hive’s curiosity sharpened.
Could they be some new kind of Inhuman?
He sent more of his microscopic creatures forward, allowing the wind to carry them closer.
Then the Hive’s eyes snapped open.
Something was wrong.
They weren’t Inhumans.
Not even close.
Worse, they had apparently noticed his surveillance.
One of them had even called him a filthy bastard.
Hive’s expression darkened.
They had discovered his insects.
And then they had insulted him.
Insulted him.
The king.
The ancient ruler.
The being who had once commanded an entire civilization.
That was enough.
Hive rose from his hidden nest.
His anger burned through every remaining trace of caution.
"How dare you."
He stepped out of hiding.
"Let’s see how brave you are when I get my hands on you."
The former king began moving toward the valley himself.
He had spent thousands of years waiting for something interesting to happen.
Apparently, today had finally decided to cooperate.
...
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