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Marvel: King of The Swarm Chapter 9: Thrill of the Hunt
🕑 Added 2025-05-29 01:07:18 +0000 UTC'I would mark your experiment with Betty as a critical success,' Nyx spoke up as Harry pulled into the warehouse and parked his motorcycle in the garage, 'I must also say I'm rather fond of human intercourse or at least your physiological response to it…so many strong emotions and urges.'
Harry smirked as he dismounted his motorcycle, 'Well that's a good thing, because there's bound to be more of it in the future. Turns out that overwhelming stimulus is another way to break through the innate resistance of genetic modification. It also seemed that the cocktail of chemicals and hormones I added to my bodily fluids had the desired effect. A fast acting semi-addictive aphrodisiac that should slowly develop into a dependency with repeated exposure.'
'It should help lower inhibitions during the conversion process in more reserved targets in the future,' Nyx agreed with a hopeful and expectant tone, 'Was there a reason you didn't convert that girl into a queen?'
Walking into his lab Harry sat himself behind the center console and started to type away, 'There wouldn't be any benefit to having a queen right now, we still need to establish a proper nest and a surplus of biomass to raise the first brood. Fortunately, it seems that we're in luck.'
With a final tap of the keyboard, Harry pulled up the manifest for an international cargo ship set to dock at a nearby port which was known to have strong gang connections, 'I believe it's time for our first hunt.'
Harry felt Nyx light up with a primal joy at his announcement, 'At long last I shall feel the thrill of the hunt once more!'
Standing up from the console Harry moved towards the far side of the warehouse eventually making his way outside where a small dock sat in the Hudson River.
'I might still need your help for this, not sure I've gotten the hang of it,' Harry requested as his clothes rippled, transforming into purple slime and revealing themselves to be nothing but mimicries.
'You are more than capable,' Nyx assured Harry as the symbiote expanded to cover the rest of his body which began to morph, changing shape and form, 'But I'll always be by your side to assist.'
In a matter of seconds, Harry was replaced by a skinless alien monster that stood at nearly seven feet with a dark purple body covered in dark golden spikes along its hunched spine, elongated forearms, and digitigrade legs like that of a cheetah or deer. Its lipless mouth was decorated with a maw of needle-like teeth above which sat two solid gold eyes and a crow of similarly colored horns. Two massive clawed hands nearly scraped the ground next to its taloned feet, but a long prehensile tail barbed with countless rows of spines acted as a counterweight keeping the monster balanced.
Blinking with a set of transparent eyelids Harry slowly adjusted his mind as he occupied his new body. A great deal of thought had gone into designing the alien form, but with each passing second Harry's satisfaction grew. Not only had his five senses grown exponentially stronger he had gained several as well, such as being able to sense electrical fields, thermal radiation, echolocation, and vibrations with such accuracy that each new sense could have replaced Harry's reliance on light-based vision.
Then there was the raw power of his dense muscles and the explosive potential of his reinforced tendons urging him to let loose and push the limits of his physiology.
With a series of low but eerie clicks, Harry dove into the river disappearing into the murky water under the cover of night. Instinctively Harry tucked in his arms while keeping his legs together as his body started to undulate relying on his powerful tail to propel him through the water.
Harry felt hardly any resistance as his body cut through the water acting like a wetsuit, insulating while also having the added benefit of passively absorbing oxygen from the water. Though even without it Harry's oxygen use was so efficient that he could go days without needing to take a single breath.
Moving like a torpedo Harry let out another series of clicks that rippled through the water like sonar sending a crystal-clear image back into his mind. Navigating through the river Harry eventually located his target, a large flat-bottom cargo ship slowly making its way to port.
With a burst of speed, Harry closed the distance before attaching himself to the ship's hull with a weak but localized electrical current channeled through his palms.
Without a sound, Harry crawled up the hull before vaulting onto the deck landing in a crouch as his skin rippled changing shape and texture until it was almost an exact match for his environment. The cargo ship was almost a perfect environment with tightly packed rows and columns of shipping containers creating tight isolated walkways where Harry could easily stalk his prey.
Focusing Harry channeled his mutation and for a split second his eyes lit up with a golden light as he activated his Bio-Vision, which allowed him to see through physical matter and lock onto the bioenergy signatures of those around him. With a single visual sweep of the ship, Harry located the vehicle's entire crew, along with the armed guards patrolling the deck. Deciding on his first victim Harry stalked towards the unfortunate individual, invisible to the naked eye and completely silent thanks to his padded feet.
Near the stern of the ship, Harry caught the man completely off guard, managing to get within arms reach before pouncing. In the blink of an eye, Harry's serrated tail wrapped around the man's body pinning down his arms while also digging into his flesh drawing blood and injecting a powerful paralytic poison. The guard's jaw locked up with a silent scream, as Harry dropped his camouflage revealing his terrifying visage and drinking in the look of absolute terror in the man's eyes.
After a second to revel, Harry grabbed the man's head wrenching it to the side to expose his neck which he greedily bit into. Blood flooded Harry's mouth and while he didn't mind the coppery taste, he was after something far more valuable. An invigorating warmth flowed through Harry's body as he drained the man's bioenergy, his very life force to empower himself. Within a matter of seconds, the man was dead, devoid of any sign of life and Harry quickly threw the body overboard for him to collect later.
Re-engaging camouflage Harry leapt onto the nearest shipping container and proceeded to scale the metal without any difficulty quickly reaching the very top of the stack. From his vantage point, Harry found the next guard and took off, skittering across the rows of containers like a phantom. Reaching the end of the row Harry threw himself at the guard stationed below, his claws flashed as they elongated into foot long blades that skewered the man through the chest sending blood arching into the air. Once more poison kept the man from screaming as Harry drained his lifeforce and threw the body overboard.
Having claimed two lives already Harry felt the last vestiges of his hesitation and uncertainty vanished, replaced by the confidence of an emerging predator mastering their craft. In the blink of any eye Harry was off once more ready to reap the ship's remaining crew.
—-
With a soft thud Gwen landed atop the column of shipping containers and froze waiting to see if she had somehow been spotted before slinking forward to investigate. It had taken her a solid week of breaking into the Kingpin's hideouts to find credible information regarding the shipment of firearms she had heard about arriving sometime that month.
'If those guns make it onto the streets, Fisk will have enough firepower to arm his men and have them sweep through the city.' Just thinking about the potential loss of life, and the blood that would sweep through the city made Gwen's stomach sink.
Crawling onto the side of the shipping containers Gwen frowned as she opened her senses trying to locate the ship's crew, only to frown when she picked up on nothing. After a year of fighting crime as the infamous Ghost Spider Gwen had learned how to properly utilize her sixth sense which seemed to give her a near supernatural ability to understand the world around her. So for a ship carrying potentially hundreds of guns for the most powerful crime lord in New York city, getting radio silence was an anomaly that set Gwen's nerve on edge.
'What's going on?' Dropping onto the deck Gwen stalked forward looking up and down and still finding no sign of life, until she spotted a dark rivulet running across the floor from around the corner.
Cautiously Gwen peered around the corner only to find a large violent splatter of blood on the nearby shipping containers which had pooled onto the deck.
'Oh god,' The sheer volume and spray pattern convinced Gwen that whoever the blood belonged to had died a violent and visceral death, 'What the hell is going on.'
