Marvel: Rise of the Ultimate AI

Chapter 139: Welcome to S.W.O.R.D., Doctor



A black-glowing blade pierced straight through Hive's chest, pinning him to the control room wall like an insect skewered on a needle.

"Hahaha! Go ahead! No matter what you do to me, I'll just come back with a new body. Everything you hold dear will be crushed under my heel," Hive cackled maniacally. "Honestly, I wasn't all that fond of this one anyway."

He laughed wildly, his eyes filled with madness—not like someone moments from death, but like a butcher savoring his next kill.

Gene tilted his head slightly.

"You know… I've heard this exact speech before. Some other guy tried it on me too."

As he spoke, Gene's hands formed a complex series of signs, and black sigils began to spread across the floor beneath him.

Hive's face twisted. Something about the dark magical array igniting beneath his feet filled him with instinctive dread—a cold, suffocating terror crashed into his brain like a tidal wave.

"That guy didn't end well... Let's just say, it got messy."

Gene extended his fingers. With a snap, the circle activated. Bone-white flames erupted from the floor.

They weren't ordinary flames—they were hellfire.

Screams—raw, piercing, inhuman—ripped through the control room as Hive's body was engulfed in the soul-burning flames from the Hell Dimension of Mephisto-023.

Muscle sizzled. Nerve endings melted. The countless souls trapped within the parasitic swarm howled in agony as the inferno consumed them, one by one. They tried to flee Hive's body, but none could escape. Each was reduced to ash and smoke.

As the flames died down and the magic circle faded, it was as if they had never existed. The only trace left behind was a blackened scorch mark where Hive once stood.

"Sir," came Red Queen's voice inside Gene's neural network. "Hive's vital signs have ceased. He is completely terminated."

Hive—the first Inhuman born on Earth, the so-called god whispered about among Inhumans, the ancient figurehead of Hydra's millennia-long devotion—was now reduced to a pile of charred remains. Not even his soul survived.

The two half-devoured figures—Magneto and Namor—lay crumpled nearby, their eyes wide in disbelief. They couldn't comprehend what they'd just witnessed.

Gene looked over his shoulder at them.

"I figured," he said flatly.

Then he turned fully to face them.

"You two are no longer necessary. From now on, you'll serve under me... in a new form. You'll help manage mutants and Atlanteans alike."

A surge of brilliant blue energy gathered in Gene's palm. Before either of the stunned men could react, twin beams of plasma tore through their skulls, ending their lives instantly.

Magneto and Namor—the instigators of war between land and sea—were no more.

"Sir, Magneto and Namor have flatlined," Red Queen continued calmly. "There are still two life forms detected in the adjacent control room. One of them appears to be Doctor Chris."

Gene had already noticed the two individuals but deemed them irrelevant during the Hive battle. Now, with the fight over, one of them was stumbling out from behind the doorway.

Doctor Margot Chris had been hiding beside the control room entrance, watching the entire fight unfold in horror. When Hive was burned alive, he nearly screamed in joy—but caught himself just in time.

Now, Gene's scarlet V-shaped visor turned toward him.

Doctor Chris froze like a deer in headlights. His legs wobbled as he stepped out, hands raised like a surrendering clown.

"It's not my fault! I was a victim too! I swear, I didn't help him! He just asked me to tweak some missile parameters! I didn't know he was planning to fire that! I didn't even touch the console! Please, sir, show mercy—I'm begging you, don't shoot me..."

The words tumbled out in a frenzy, like machine gun fire. The man had clearly practiced this speech many times under Hive's terrifying rule.

But Gene didn't care about a word he was saying.

He had already identified the man using his facial recognition systems.

"Doctor Margot Chris?" Gene asked.

"Yes! Yes, that's me!" Chris nodded so fast he looked like a bobblehead.

"I've read a few of your papers on neural-mechanical integration. Some of your theories were quite... enlightening. They gave me some useful inspiration."

Chris blinked, stunned. He wasn't sure if this was sarcasm or sincere praise.

"Oh, no, no! Those were just some basic observations! Really nothing groundbreaking…"

"Relax, Doctor," Gene said calmly. "I'm not here to hurt you. I believe your talents are wasted in a place like this—surrounded by terrorists and monsters."

Gene glanced around the charred room before continuing.

"So I'm offering you a position. As a special consultant."

"Wha… what?" Chris stammered. Just seconds ago, he thought his head was about to be vaporized—and now he was getting a job offer?

"Sure! Yes! Absolutely!" he blurted out. "Whatever you say!"

"Then welcome to S.W.O.R.D., Doctor."

Gene bent down and gently picked up the unconscious Jia Ying in his arms. A swirling portal of golden light opened beside him.

"Step through. You'll be assigned a position and given clearance protocols to sign. Oh—and several layers of confidentiality agreements."

With that, Gene walked into the portal.

Chris stood frozen, gawking at the space-ripping anomaly before him. After a long pause, he clenched his jaw and followed behind.

"Just a glowing circle of light… No big deal... Totally normal... Right?"

And with that, he stepped through—into the unknown.

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