American comics: Starting with Luke the Maker

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S.H.I.E.L.D.

Triskelion Headquarters.

"The test results aren't optimistic, Director." Nick, who had returned with the injured and personnel, and had been monitoring the possessed agents entering the examination room, heard the news that was not unexpected.

"Tell me about it." Nick's emotions had stabilized. The biggest threat, that mountain-sized octopus monster, had disappeared and might be hard to encounter again in the future. The impact of this crisis was extinguished in its infancy before it had a chance to spread. The only loss was some personnel.

This was acceptable to Nick! Even with greater sacrifices, he would still accept it. What was there to be dissatisfied with? If they had encountered this monster unprepared, without the Hebron super-powered equipment, it wouldn't have been surprising if they had been wiped out in one wave. Even with his many life-saving measures, he couldn't guarantee he could survive a disaster of that scale of destruction, comparable to a small-scale catastrophe.

"They have an additional powerful consciousness within their bodies." Maria Hill handed over the test report.

"Mental contamination?" Nick asked, his one eye fixed on Agent Hill standing before him.

"Mental parasitism." Agent Hill said with a serious expression, "They still have all their memories, experiences, and knowledge. If you're just casually interacting with them, unless you're extremely familiar with them and highly sensitive, you wouldn't even notice any suspicious abnormalities in their words and actions.

They are still those agents, but they are no longer the agents they once were."

In the end, Agent Hill gave her conclusion in a tongue-twisting manner. And Nick had no misunderstanding of her conclusion.

"In other words, it's a parasitism similar to the Symbiotes? But more serious." Nick immediately thought of another type of extraterrestrial creature—the Symbiotes!

Symbiotes also gain the host's memories and abilities through parasitism, and can even influence the host's will and control their actions to some extent.

But Symbiotes have weaknesses. They are afraid of fire and sound waves, and these weaknesses can be used to expel them from the host's body. Without a host, and with proper isolation measures against any organism, the threat of Symbiotes is greatly reduced!

Moreover, according to Luke's description of the Symbiotes, most of the Symbiote race are relatively friendly. They prefer to choose hosts with good character and a sense of justice for parasitism, and they have a whole set of parasitism rules that they consider parasitism laws. These include not influencing or controlling the host's actions, or making them do things they don't want to do against their will.

As for the few problematic Symbiotes that came here?

They were just a group of exiles who violated the parasitism laws. After all, every race has some relatively unruly individuals.

From the current point of view, Hive's parasitism is clearly highly invasive and controlling. This is a clear distinction from the Symbiote's method of parasitism. Nick wasn't even sure if these Hive parasites really needed the host to be alive.

"Yes, this parasitism is more secretive and more difficult to detect. If our equipment hadn't been constantly updated over the years, and if Hebron and the mages hadn't provided some technology, it would have been difficult for us to detect the anomalies." A hint of lingering fear flashed in Agent Hill's eyes.

If they hadn't been detected, would these infected individuals have transformed others around them into parasites? Would the parasites who were transformed into parasites be able to parasitize even more people?

At that time, would S.H.I.E.L.D. still be the same S.H.I.E.L.D.?

Would these people still be considered normal humans?

Just imagining it, Agent Hill could feel a suffocating sense of panic. If it were to spread to the entire social level, the trust between people might disappear, and order would be on the verge of collapse.

"What's their current state?" Nick rubbed his forehead and suddenly asked.

"Very calm and cooperative. We have isolated them." Agent Hill understood who Nick was asking about, and what he meant by 'state'.

"Is there any way? I mean, a way to isolate them from the parasites." Nick didn't hold out much hope. "What are the weaknesses of those parasites?"

"Surgical separation is possible, but the requirements for the surgery are very high, and the success rate is not high. The necessary surgical equipment needs to be specially customized, and there's no guarantee of 100% eradication." Agent Hill reported. "As for weaknesses, we haven't found any weaknesses yet. The Inversion Crystal only made the parasites a little inert, unable to control the agents freely."

"What about the other agents? Everyone involved in the mission needs to be tested, including myself." Nick asked again. Almost all of the agents who hadn't been infected were elite agents wearing mental rings. That layer of energy armor not only amplified their abilities but also blocked various dangers from the outside. In Luke's words, you could even spend some time in the vacuum of space without any protection while wearing the energy armor.

But out of caution, Nick was willing to put his mind at ease.

"Yes, Director!" Agent Hill understood Nick's caution. If she could, she would have examined every agent working in the Triskelion today.

...

"I smell something familiar on you." Luke, returning to the Hebron laboratory from the data dimension of Silent City, was immediately drawn to a gluttonous Symbiote who came to beg for food at a fixed time.

Quiet's big head peeked out from Gwen's shoulder, stretched out long, sniffed around Luke up and down, left and right, with a suspicious look in her eyes.

"What smell?" Luke was a little dazed in the face of Quiet's paranoia. He had only gone to his Silent City.

"The smell of a bug I once ate." Quiet retracted her head, looking at Luke with a hint of anticipation. "You must have secretly made something delicious again, right? Let me try it! Let me try it! I'm willing to be your eternal golden taste tester."

"Hive?" Luke thought for a moment and gave a name. In his opinion, the only bug he had recently come into contact with that might be related was Hive.

"Hive?" Quiet looked blank. "Is that the name of the new food you made? I don't care about that, I only care if it's delicious."

"What was the name of the bug you ate?" Not getting an accurate answer from Quiet, Luke realized that they might not be talking about the same type of bug.

"Brood! A bug race in the universe known as a natural disaster. It was first discovered by a Kree Empire biological science team while exploring collapsing dark matter streams. They named it [Brood]. Their research found that it was an extremely belligerent and highly adaptable bug race.

These bugs like to nest in the ruins of destroyed universes. This environment, which is deadly to other creatures, is very comfortable for them. And the Brood's ability is parasitic, ranking alongside our Symbiotes as the two major parasitic races in the universe. They can also absorb the host's memories and experiences, and gain vast amounts of knowledge from the host's mind, using it as nourishment for evolution!" Quiet gave an answer without hesitation.

This wasn't a secret on the Symbiote's home planet of Klyntar. Or rather, the knowledge and important information of Symbiotes with a hive mind is almost completely shared.

"You ate it?" Luke's gaze at Quiet was strange for a moment. Really, this peculiar Symbiote always managed to pull a face on him when he thought he knew her well enough. And if you ask her about some biological or planetary information in the universe, she will truthfully reveal it to you. Of course, it's normal for her to mix in things like, 'I think this is delicious,' or 'This is not delicious,' when introducing cosmic creatures. Because she's really sharing what she considers to be delicacies and ingredients. At most, she'll add a few [chefs] who are good at cooking.

"One of my hosts ate it. Rounding it off, it should be equal to me eating it, right?" Quiet blinked her gray-white eyes, somewhat uncertain.

"That host was my first host, a professional gourmet. Well, that's what he said himself. He took me to eat all over several galaxies, and finally, because he provoked some enemies, we had to escape to a very dangerous place.

It was there that I first saw the Brood. They were dormant in an abandoned laboratory. My host recognized this legendary bug race." Quiet recalled with a look of nostalgia.

"You guys have a really good appetite." Although Quiet didn't continue, thinking about her current personality and the fact that Symbiotes are greatly influenced by their first host, Luke could completely imagine the next scene. As for Quiet's so-called professional gourmet, Luke automatically changed it to crazy gourmet.

"Unfortunately, my host probably hadn't mastered the technique of how to properly cook Brood at the time, so he felt a little unwell after eating it. Those bugs fought with me in his body." Quiet said with a regretful expression.

"Died?" Luke and Gwen, who were listening to the story, were both stunned.

"Of course he died of indigestion! There were still a lot of things I and he had planned to eat." Quiet obviously had great affection for her first host. "Later, I parasitized a cosmic agent who came to track us down. I controlled her to do some things she didn't want to do, but she couldn't resist me. So she had a mental split. One was the original consciousness, and the other became an even crazier madwoman than me, forcing me to go from a cosmic gourmet to a cosmic wanted criminal. So unlucky!"

Luke and Gwen were speechless at Quiet's sudden turn of events.

"Symbiotes can indeed control a person's body, but there is a power of resistance when the host resists, right?" Gwen was a little suspicious. Quiet rarely forced her to do anything against her will when she was conscious, unless it was time to replenish her food.

"Yeah." Quiet nodded in agreement.

"Then the other party?" Gwen was puzzled.

"I ate Brood! It has the characteristic of forcibly controlling and assimilating the host with a certain obsession." Quiet grinned.

A line seemed to connect in Luke's mind.

After some research on the Hive, it could be seen from the extracted, somewhat fragmented memories that the other party was also originally a Kree experiment product, but after being abandoned by the Kree, it was feared and dreaded by its own kind, and they tried to send him to a remote planet.

How did they manage to send Hive away when their technology was not as advanced as it is now?

Where did that black stone gate technology that could be used to transport people come from?

Kree!

The only possibility was that the Kree who left at the time did not take away all the items, and these remaining technological products were in the hands of the Inhumans. And the distant star that Hive was sent to should also be a former Kree experimental star.

In Hive's memory, at some point while he was in prison, a terrible disaster occurred on the distant star he was on!

"What's the name of the planet you went to?" Luke asked Quiet, frowning.

"Which planet?" Quiet asked quickly.

"The one where you saw the Brood."

"I don't know. It's just a remote planet. The creatures on it were almost extinct." Quiet said indifferently.

"So, you saw creatures on it?" Luke keenly grasped a certain key point in Quiet's words.

"I should have seen them, right? A species similar to your octopus here. Not many of them." Quiet tilted her head and thought seriously. Because the time was too long ago, her memory was a little blurry. It wasn't anything important. The reason she could remember it now was entirely because she regretted not being able to taste what the octopus heads' minds tasted like when she left.

Okay, Luke shrugged.

The catastrophe in Hive's memory was likely caused by Quiet and her host, as well as the trackers. Among them, the dormant system of the laboratory may have been destroyed, causing some Brood to slowly awaken from their slumber.

After Quiet and the tracker left together, the awakened Brood chose to parasitize the surviving octopus heads. Combined with Hive's original abilities, the stronger Hive evolved form was formed.

This also explained why the Inversion Crystal had outstanding effects on other Inhumans with Inhuman genes, but its effect on Hive was somewhat unsatisfactory. Because the other party was not a pure Inhuman at all, the other party was a new Inhuman with Brood characteristics!