The "G" Shield

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Kamar Taj [August 2014]

–Alveus (HIVE)–

"Humans have come far from the primitives they once were," He commented absentmindedly even as one of his tentacles continued to choke the life out of one of the sacrificial agents given to him. He was currently wearing the skin of one of the dead HYDRA agents who had been oh so graceful to give him the possession of his body.

With a swift crack, the struggles of the agent behind him ceased as his powers worked their magic and— "Aahh," He sighed in contentment as he felt his strength increase a bit. 

"No! Nonononono! Don't come clos– Ack!" That was all the poor thing could say before his tentacles simply entered his mouth and stopped his whining. He enjoyed watching the desperation, the fear even as the realisation that they were going to die entered their eyes, they continued to struggle to survive, to do something.

"Hmm?" He looked at the slowly raising hand towards him, trying to catch him, punch him? He did not know but he was done with this plaything so with a flex of his mind, the tentacle that had almost reached the stomach stopped and then expanded into a beautiful shower of blood. He could almost taste it but alas, this dead body did not have the same quality as the others did. 

"Are they to your liking?"

"Hmm?" He looked up as a voice spoke from the ceiling. His possession of this dead body had allowed him to learn a great many things about the current state of his planet. He had been banished, feared for his powers and now, he had returned and he was nto going to make the same mistakes as he did before.

He was going to wait, bide his time, return to his former peak, and then…

Then, as his face split into a hideous grin, even as he felt blood leak the face as it was stretched beyond its limits, 'I will rid this world of non Inhumans and rule the rest,'

But for now, he was content in mulching down the sacrifices provided to him by the cult of primates that had apparently been instrumental in his return, and were more than willing to provide anything he demanded to help him regain his strength, which was the only reason he had limited himself to feasting on designated poor souls, instead of just devouring the entire institution and being done with it.

No, that was how he was found and banished the last time, because he could not control himself. He will not do that this time. THis time, it would be slow, just like this body was once taught. 

The primates, they called themselves human, really had come far from his days. Back when he was still on Earth, they were barely more than monkeys, cowering beneath their might and hunting for mere morsels of food while the Ihhumans lounged like Kings, strengthened by the technology that the Kree left behind.

Then, his face twisted in yet another grimace as he thought of the Kree and how their technology was used against him, to banish him from his rightful place as the ruler of Inhumans and all other lesser beings on Earth.

He could find no trace of that awe inspiring technology in his range but then again, he was nowhere near his prime. Having been forced to spend centuries, alone, without any food had deteriorated his body and even his mind to the point of non coherence. IT was only the unintended sacrifices that he consumed in his insanity that allowed some of his powers to recover and his mind to gain some stability.

Now that he had consumed enough of the primates, he could think clearly. Plan clearly and also, this time, with the resources he had at his disposal, he was sure to gain his rightful place as the Ruler of the Inhumans.

"You!" he pointed at the glass, where he knew some of the primates were hiding. For now, he let them think that he was their ally because as far as he could tell, the primates were somehow the dominant species on the planet now. WHile that was the case when he was banished as well, but they just had numbers on their side.

If he was sensing correctly, the numbers he was getting in just his small range was enough to fill an entire continent beach when he was still active. He used to pick up their settlements and snack on them, just out of boredom because his body could not be satiated with just primate blood anymore. It was just a pastime for him, to raze down their primitive civilisations.

But now?

Now that he had consumed enough of these primates' brains, he could tell that the Inhumans species would have a very hard time getting rid of these primates, without some truly drastic measures.

For Kree's sake, these primates would rather destroy the entire planet than submit to him. No, that would not do. They had to submit to him, if not in their current form, then in some other form.

"Y-Yes?" He heard the stammered reply from the ceiling, from the speakers. Odd, these primates had technology that was advancing at a pace that would put them at par with some of the things from the Kree base from his memories, in a few more centuries. THat rate of progress was alarming but it would explain their rapid growth if they somehow stumbled upon old Kree tech and managed to learn from it.

He could tell that the biggest difference between the Primates of his time and now was their brain. They had vastly more developed brains and the information density in each of the sacrifices was just delicious.

Back in his time, he would have had to consume thousands to gain anywhere near the amount of information he was getting from a single brain. It was helping him get acclimated with this new time period faster than ever.

"Get me more," he simply ordered the people behind the mirror and sat down on the ground, cross legged, his tentacles floating behind him, doing a sweep of the entire place, wiping down blood and any stray pieces of flesh that were still remaining. At this point, the boost was negligible but he simply enjoyed the feeling of lording over these simpletons.

As he sat down, his power expanded, to cover a vast swathe of land. Nowhere near his prime when he could actually pinpoint Nascent as well as active Inhumans halfway across the planet but it would do for now. Unless he got his hands on some Inhumans, alive or dead, he would not recover to his prime. Just primate brains were enough for information and for him to retain his mind but not enough for him to grow strong enough to overthrow the current regime.

His power pinged on all the humans that lived nearby, which was not much because they were deep underground, in the middle of a forest, with nothing but animals and crocodiles for as far as his range went. Still, the few humans he could sense on the outskirts of the forest were normal humans with only a single one who had the potential to become an Inhuman. 

The blood was muddled so much that it might as well not exist but he was sure that it was a Nascent Inhuman, someone who would easily become a member of his species with the Terrigen crystals.

Speaking of which, "I assume you have something for me? Something that you have undoubtedly gathered?" He asked the mirror once again, knowing through the soldiers' memoirs that a large amount of stuff had been transferred to this base in preparation for his arrival and he knew that none of it was used because the Monolith was a single part of it.

He could feel them move hastily without even reply. Cowards.

...

….

"Ah, that was adequate," he said as he exited the containment chambers, having consumed a dozen more agents with the Nascent Primate being one of them. Even that little bit of Inhuman DNA helped as he entered the room that had been specifically sealed with all the stuff that these people thought would help him.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and let his senses expand. Almost immediately, they snapped open as he stalked deep into the pile of stuff, eventually reaching a large wooden crate. His hand went through the crate as he grabbed it and pulled it out.

With reverence, he placed it on the ground, and let some of his tentacles bleed black blood on the container which opened it, revealing the blue glow of terrigenesis crystals to him. He grinned as he felt the Nascent blood within his body react to the Crystal but now was not the time. Technically, he could make the possessed body undergo terrigenesis and gain new powers but that would leave him vulnerable and might also give him faulty powers.

That was not a risk he was willing to take right now. What he could do was make sure to bring any nascent Inhumans into the fold and mold them to his will. 

He could now create a small army of Inhumans, allowing him to exert his power over a far larger scale. All he had to do was travel and find the speck of Nascent Inhumans amidst the sea of humans that littered his planet. That was fine though because soon enough, that would not be the case.

He would rule over all of them, once he was done going through this whole mess of stuff that had been gathered for him. ONe of the primates had informed him that the whole ruler council of the cult that his followers started after he was banished, was going to come here, to formally meet their ruler.

It would be nice to meet them. He wondered, though, how would their fear taste?

Would it be as delicious as the agents he devoured, who thought of his family in his last moments? Maybe he should give the family a visit.

Something to do later on.

...

….

[October 2014]

Nice, he thought to himself. In such a short span, he had found over 100 specimens capable of undergoing terrigenesis and only 20 of them died because of their insolence before they could let the mists of terrigenesis touch them. Those 20 deaths helped put the other 80 in line as they obediently followed his orders.

Of those 83 that went into the chambers, 73 came out with powers. The rest withered into dust, their Nascent blood too thin for the crystals to do anything with them. Of the 73 that came out, 4 of them were of no use to him so he swiftly ate them, in front of the remaining 69, partly because it was fun to watch their fear before he took control of them and partly because it would be a waste of Inhuman DNA to just let them die by something as mundane as a bullet.

"Ah…" he almost moaned at the increase in his strength. His strength recover even more, he could cover even more land and he smiled once more, as he felt dozens of Nascents more, this time, with even stronger Inhumans blood in them.

...

….

[November 2014]

Somewhat satisfied with the small army of Inhumans he had raised and controlled into doing his bidding, he turned his attention to some of the biggest hurdles in his way to become the ruler of the Inhumans.

The Avengers.

"Even more so.." he disregarded the files of the Avengers and instead focused on another file that was much thicker. The Green Guardian.

He snorted, what a terrible name. Jack Sullivan. Someone who was strong enough to overturn the entire base he was in, including the town itself if he so wished. So much power and what did that fool do with it? Serve and protect the Primates, as if those insolent monkeys could ever amount to anything, let alone to someone on the level of Jack.

Oh, he could freely admit that he was surprised at his power levels but he had seen plenty of other Inhumans during his heyday that could exert power on the same level, at the very least. His very presence among the Inhumans meant that he could reliably guide the New generation of Inhumans to the optimal use of their powers. He could also boost them but that required bonding on a level that he was just not comfortable.

Bonding of that sort was what led to weakness in his otherwise perfect self and that was the weakness that the Kree used to banish him to his own personal hell, something that he hadn't forgotten. Once he was sure that his own civilization was up to match, he would soon set his sights on the Kree.

"Ah.." he licked his lips at that. He could still remember the taste of the First Kree he had killed and devoured. The boost he had gotten as a result of that was still fresh in his memory and he would love to have that taste once again, sometime in the future. That was certain.

On to the point, the cult leadership which was a Father and a daughter short because they seemed to be the ones with the most delicious fear, had put together this dossier for him, full of weaknesses, both confirmed and theorised.

For the entire roster of the Avengers and yet…

And yet, they could not find some reliable weaknesses for this Jack, arguably the biggest threat to him with his containment and sealing capabilities, aside from some weak plan of targeting his close ones.

No, he had to take out this Jack Sullivan himself before they could go any further but frustratingly, none of the fellow members of his species had awakened with a powerset that could help in defeating this Jack. He also knew that if he got his hands on Jack's body, there would be no one on this planet capable of stopping him.

...

….

[December 2014]

These days, all he did was help train the Inhumans, travel and load up new lots of Inhumans, and look for weaknesses in the biggest threat to his plans.

Most of the Avengers and the do gooders had been accounted for. It would be trivially easy in fact to get rid of them because of their familial connections.

It was only Jack Sullivan who had nothing they could capitalise on. THis frustration had led to his Inhuman Army's size being reduced from 150 to 141, nine dying tragically to fill his hunger. He did get so much angrier when he was hungry. 

It also frustrated him that he could not find much of the Royal Blood in any of the Inhumans on the planet. His inability to get higher tier Inhumans meant that he was still stuck at country level. The Royal Blood, back when he was alive, was touted as the single strongest bloodline, guaranteed to produce an Inhuman with an impossibly strong power, such as his own.

Despite combing the entire continent, and the neighbouring one, he hadn';t found a single one with Royal Blood. Their blood would have been like the biggest boost to his powers and yet, he was stuck, with mediocre Inhumans, who could not even sate his hunger at times.

He made sure to avoid the ones with the better powers and the ones who were proficient in their use but that still left many who could be thrown in his tentacles anytime he wanted.

Could the monkeys have diluted their bloodline so much, in their quest to multiply like rabbits, that no ROyal Blood existed on the planet anymore?

That was a terrifying thought, something that guaranteed his failure in defeating and acquiring Jack's body.

No matter, Jack would get in his range someday and then he would have his confirmation.

Until then, he would prod and plot.

"Hmm?" he stopped rocking the chair and looked at the door as someone was coming rushing in his direction. He was not to be disturbed unless something came up on Jack and everyone on the base knew it, considering the warning also came with 2 heads being planted in the center of the base floor.

"Come in," he answered the knock and grinned at the delicious fear coming off the young woman.

Not right now. Maybe later.

"What is it?"

…

He grinned as the young thing left. She had earned her life, for now. He looked at the tablet and the reports in front of him. The portals, the golden chains, and more.

Those were not innate powers. The cult that had expanded rapidly recently had found out some more people, who could do the same things as Jack.

Opening portals to other places, using sticks, chains, and swords made up of the same orange glow.

He grinned at that, this could be used. It was good that one of the Inhumans awakened with a power that could protect their digital infrastructure.

Otherwise, Stark's pet AI would have detected them in the first week itself. All in all, the army was useful in some aspects but nothing that would grant him absolute power.

After all, in front of Absolute Power, what was strategy if not mere monkeys jumping around, waiting for the inevitable?

Word Count - 2952

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