I hope you enjoy this release of Marvel: King of The Swarm
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Harry felt equal parts relief and anticipation as he finally arrived at the deepest part of the Hudson River with his cargo in tow, twenty-five bodies strung along with a tendril of symbiote. Each body had been drained of its bioenergy and now their biomass would form the first nest for Harry's Swarm.
Adjusting his buoyancy Harry settled onto the riverbed before holding out his hand as he selected the engram within the Codex. Bioenergy and symbiote flowed up from Harry's palm forming a spiky spherical growth covered in a thick purple film with a golden light shining from within. Once the seed had germinated Harry embedded the spark of life into the riverbed before giving it one last infusion of bioenergy to awaken the seed from its dormancy.
The alien sphere pulsed with a golden light as it came alive, extending a series of barbed tentacles that buried into the ground. After anchoring itself the seed sprouted, turning into a massive cavernous maw that lay on the river bottom like a bear trap, revealing a ten-foot-deep pit lined with countless serrated teeth. However, the teeth wouldn't be visible for long as a bubbling golden fluid began to pool at the bottom of the fanglined pit. While the liquid looked like molten gold, in reality, it was a highly corrosive acid Harry had genetically engineered to dissolve almost any material, organic or inorganic.
Needlessly to say the bodies Harry had collected stood no chance as he tossed them into what he called, a Spawning Pool. The living acid pit was responsible for converting organic material into biomass which could be used by other nest structures to carry out their specialized functions or produce new Swarm members.
That was the beauty of Harry's design, a single nest, if left undisturbed, would be capable of colonizing an entire ecosystem devouring everything in sight, and raising hundreds of Swarm before a proper resistance could be mounted. The reason why was that a nest was actually a collection of several highly specialized multicellular organisms forming a semi-intelligible colony or collective. When Harry's conquest began in earnest, the nests would become cancerous symbols of destruction and a sign of the end of times.
The need to expand and consume everything that wasn't Swarm was something that Harry had programmed into the nest's very DNA, and now he got to watch that programming manifest before him as the spawning pool finished its very first meal and began to utilize its new stockpile of biomass.
Like a timelapse of an oil spill, the spawning pool started to ooze a dark purple slime which spread across the river bottom before hardening into a spongey substance. Despite its seemingly fragile texture, the hardened slime was stronger than reinforced concrete.
Harry had lovingly named the substance Creep, and while its primary purpose was to act as an organic building material for the nest, the superorganism also acted as an interface for any member of the Swarm. Providing them access to the nest's reserves of biomass and bioenergy to heal potentially fatal injuries and undergo genetic alteration.
While the nest may have seemed like the perfect organism, Harry only considered the current version to be a rough draft. There would be countless improvements made once he started to spread his influence throughout the world, then the galaxy, and finally the entire universe. In all honesty, Harry never truly expected to reach a final version, there would always be new challenges that would force the Swarm to adapt and evolve. Fortunately, that is where their greatest strength would lie.
Within the span of a few minutes, the creep had expanded to cover nearly a hundred square feet and was now twisting into grotesque columns that would eventually support a roof and walls. Just then a small bass swam past one of the growing columns and Harry watched as a grotesque tentacle covered in keratinous barbs shot out and snagged the unfortunate fish. The bass thrashed once before going limp as the tentacle passed the living morsel to the spawning pool which manifested its own appendage graciously accepting the soon-to-be biomass. Watching the scene unfold a complex look passed over Harry's face, 'I didn't design the nest to hunt.'
After considering the anomaly for a second Harry saw no downside to the nest securing its own biomass, and instead made a mental note to investigate at a later date. Having done his part, Harry kicked off the bottom of the river and started swimming back to the warehouse. Eventually, he would check on the nest again with another supply of biomass, even though the nest was clearly capable of feeding itself.
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"What do you mean the shipment was intercepted?"
A calm but undeniably powerful voice rolled through the massive office that sat at the top of one of the tallest skyscrapers in New York City.
The poor man who had been forced to deliver the terrible news trembled as he stood before the most powerful man in New York City, Willson Fisk, The Kingpin, who was currently glaring at him with an unrecognizable expression, "W-well t-the s-ship never made it to p-port...s-so we sent a crew out t-to find i-it..."
"Get to the point," Fisk ground out as he leaned forward, the leather chair creaking beneath him ominously.
"W-we found the ship drifting in the river, t-the g-guns w-were gone," The man stammered forcing the words out of his mouth all while praying that god would let him walk out of the room in one piece.
Fisk exhaled, a deep sigh that filled the room with an almost physical presence, "And what of the armed guards and the ship's crew?"
The man gulped, "T-they w-were gone as well, it was a ghost ship S-sir."
Fisk paused seemingly caught by surprise, "You didn't find any bodies?"
The man shook his head making Fisk let out a contemplative grunt as he leaned back in his chair, "Any signs of a struggle? Bullet holes? Webbing?"
"I-I didn't see it myself sir, b-but a-apparently t-there was blood...a lot of it," The man answered but whispered the last part.
"I see," Fisk muttered as his head dipped concealing his eyes from view, "Thank you for informing me of such vital information."
The man blinked before letting out a quiet sigh of relief as his body relaxed and his legs stopped trembling. At that exact moment, Fisk's head suddenly snapped up revealing two burning flames of fury in place of his eyes as he stood up and grabbed the edge of his desk. With a furious roar the mountain of a man threw the several hundred pounds of solid mahogany like it was a folding table.
The poor grunt only had a moment to register his impending doom before the table caught him in the chest sending him flying before pinning him against the floor with a bone-crushing crash.
"So you're telling me, that a shipment carrying millions of dollars worth of guns and ammunition just vanished into the night, along with the people I sent to guard it!?" Fisk's voice boomed followed by the sound of his heavy footsteps.
"P-please," The man gasped for mercy, blood bubbling past his lips as his lungs turned into improvised water ballons, "P-please!"
Standing over the man like a vengeful god Fisk was lips curled at the pathetic sight and the blood staining his now ruined desk. Lifting his foot Fisk stared into the man's eyes as he brought it down on the desk putting all of his immense weight behind it. There was a moment of resistance as the man's eyes bulged and his mouth opened in a silent scream, then his ribcage gave way with an audible crack and the desk went flush with the ground.
Letting out an irritated scoff Fisk took his foot off the desk and reaching into his suit pulled out a phone before dialing a number, "Send a clean-up crew to my office, and a new desk."
Not bothering to wait for a response Fisk put away the phone, having now temporarily cleared his mind he was able to think about the evolving situation, 'This incident doesn't match the MO of any of those wanna-be heroes. Spiderwoman would have left the crew alive as would have Daredevil, but the lack of bodies and bullet holes rules out Francis. Perhaps Tombstone caught wind of the shipment, though this isn't his usual tactic.'
Making his way to the windows Fisk gazed out at New York City watching as it shone in the night, soon it would all belong to him, it had to. Letting out a grunt Fisk turned away from the view his eyes steady with a plan. The lost shipment was regrettable, but it had never been Fisk's sole way of procuring the arms he needed to fuel his takeover.
Pulling out his phone Fisk made another call, "Send out the green light and mobilize our forces, I want every high-priority target hit by the end of tomorrow night."