Waking up from a fever dream.

Entering through the secure hallway of the wing where Susan and the others were contained, with an entourage of armed SHIELD guards in tow behind him, Nick Fury did not bat an eyelash when he found security laxer letting him and his staff in. Just yesterday, the protocols for entering and exiting were so harsh and stringent, that even the idea of having him enter, let alone have a squad to back him up was insane, even for him. The penalty would have been his execution and the execution of everyone he brought into this prison hall and to have the bodies disintegrated to avoid any possible infection to escape. There would not have been a body to bury in a graveyard.

Now? There was no need for that anymore, not after Reed Richard’s treatment had been administered to all six of their prisoners. After the speaker system stopped scrambling from the screams and the inmates were monitored for hours to study any lingering effects after their treatment, the clear was given and Fury entered the wing devoted to containing the most alien and dangerous prisoners the RAFT was tasked to contain.

Walking down the hall and looking over his left shoulder, the six inmates in the sole wing devoted to containing them were a far cry to whom they were just hours ago. He had travelled this wing very few times in the past, to keep check on them or interview the prisoners for information. For the most part he kept his eye on them from the monitoring station, which he found MUCH safer. Each time he came down here made the man uneasy. The subjects were salacious, predatory, and he knew if they were let out… unstoppably deadly. He had no doubt that any one of them could kill everyone and everything in the raft with ease before making their escape to the mainland.

Now?

Two of the prisoners sat at the far corner of their cells, hugging themselves tightly and rocking back and forth while a pair of medical staff tended to the she-creatures, their prison observation panel had been lifted, leaving their habitats wide open for anyone to enter or exit now. Another was helped getting dressed by two SHIELD medical practitioners who soothingly helped the alien woman to her feet while making crude changes to her clothes to fit her spines and tendrils. A week ago, that very same creature looked at Fury like he was a slab of meat, shamelessly licking the glass partition of her cell and raking her claws down the reinforced glass, eager to do unspeakable things to him to gratify her appetites. Now she could barely make eye contact with the man, a look of mind-broken shock and shame on her features as she hugged herself tightly once she had a prison issue shirt, jacket and pants fit over her.

Continuing down the corridor, he found Alicia Masters and Janet Van Dyne, the two allowed out of their cells and sitting out in the hall opposite Janet’s open cell on the offered furniture, consoling each other while guards stood just meters behind them, armed and ready but relaxed as the two talked. The Wasp was the easiest to recognise despite her scaly and chitinous appearance, her back sported two pairs of diaphanous wings that buzzed and flittered occasionally behind her. Alicia however cradled her long-coiled braid of tentacles like a cat on her lap as it slithered and twitched to her hand gently petting its length down.

The two women looked up from their seats to look up at Fury and then slowly diverted their eyes to look down. He understood, as strange as that was, that it was a good sign. It meant they were themselves again. Then he came to the one cell he wanted to go to. Reaching Susan Storm’s containment brig, the man found her sitting on a chair in her cell with her husband. Her four arms wrapped around herself and her tail coiled around the legs of her chair. She rested her head against Reed’s shoulder, where her tentacles caressed and bundled around the man’s arm and back as if to anchor herself to him. Near them, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm, and Susan’s two human children sat on the floor hugging their mother’s legs while she gently rested a clawed hand over their heads.

Looking at her sullen and relief filled face told him everything he needed to know already; the monster was gone. She still appeared as the beautifully alien creature who would stalk her prison like a jungle cat, patiently planning her means of escape and tear her way out of the RAFT. But now? The cold, calculating tentacle-haired succubus was now nowhere to be seen, cajoling or mocking with her seductive tone. The only one sitting next to Reed was a blue skinned monster woman who had been through hell and thanks to her husband, freed from it. An island of sanity to weather the madness she finally broke free of. But that wasn’t why he wase here. She claimed she knew things, things that were vital, and he needed answers. Entering the open cell that quickly became surrounded by Fury’s guards, Susan looked up at the man with sad reptilian eyes. For the first time since she had been interned the RAFT, she was wearing the prison jumpsuit to cover herself up. Slits had been cut in the sides to give her second pair of arms sleeves to fit through and a slit at the back for her tail.

“Mrs. Richards.” Fury spoke, turning his attention to Mr. Fantastic who sat up to stand with Susan following suit, still clinging to her husband like a lifeline. “Tell me what you told your husband, what do you know?”

Closing her eyes and bringing her four hands to her forehead, the alien woman sighed and looked back at Fury. “It’s… You must understand… When I first turned, I thought I was going mad, and rightfully so.” She tried to explain, letting her four arms down to hug herself. Looking over his shoulder, Fury found Miss Masters and Miss Van Dyne join them, the same look of confusion on their faces as Susan. Followed by the three former models who had finally regained some composure and wandered in to join everyone.

“Whatever I became, WE became… The desire, the NEED to procreate was so demanding that there were moments I wasn’t even in control of myself, it was only when the deed was done, did I have the luxury of rational thought… I’m SO sorry for that.” Then Susan turned her head, her eyes shifting back and forth before looking back at the SHIELD director. “There… There was a voice in my head too, mocking me, coaxing me… Worming its way into my psyche. There were times it was quiet, and others…”

“Others, it was the only voice in your head at all…” Finished Alicia, cupping her cheek in her clawed hand as the memories came rushing back to her, now free of her more demanding instincts.

“It sounded like my voice… Deep inside. But it KNEW things I didn’t, about myself, about…”

“The same for me too!” Gasped Alicia, looking back at Janet and Susan. “I thought I was having a struggle with my conscience.”

“Not your conscience… IT’s conscience.” A look of realisation filled Susan’s face as she turned to look back at Reed and Fury. “We were connected to a hive mentality, an empathic link that allowed us to know where each of us were and what we were doing at any time. If I closed my eyes, I KNEW where all my progeny were, like they were extensions of my fingers. But the whole time, we were being directed by something, a will that guide us as a species. It wanted us to… Wanted ME to do horrible things…”

“Good thing you got cut from that, right Suzie?” Nodded Ben with a stony grin.

“Yeah, you’re free now, right sis?” Asked Johnny, looking back at his sister with trepidation before she turned to look back at him with a sullen frown.

“No! One of my daughters survived Reed’s attempt to neutralize my… It’s swarm, Lilith! She was told to leave the building before that all happened and set up a hive of her own, to spread and grow.”

“Where is she NOW Mrs. Richards?” Asked Nick Fury with a stern tone of voice.

Pressing her hands to her forehead again, and letting them sweep over her antlered crown, Susan sighed and shook her head. “I don’t know…The last I recall, she was in Jersey, picking mates to breed with… And eat.”

“Her hive already numbers in the hundreds now.” Answered Alicia, her eyes blinking and darting back and forth, as if trying to remember. “She… They had begun moving, making their way from there to head back to New York.”

“They’re planning an invasion, to do that they need a high population to increase their numbers, consume enough biological matter… To…”

Hearing one of the former models cry out and clutch at her head, the guards immediately reacted and aimed their weapons at the panicking she-creature as she pressed up against the wall and slid down to her rear on the floor. “It wants to consume, to spread and take everything… Until everything’s DEAD! Then the next planet…”

“Next planet?” Asked Reed with confusion, then felt Susan’s clawed hand rest on his shoulder to gain his attention, her grip inhumanly strong yet she held back doing any harm.

“I understand now… Our Species, THEIR species, this is how they operate; they infect, multiply and consume everything the planet’s ecosystem has to offer, then when there’s nothing left, they move onto the next planet, then the next, and the next after that.”

“Like locusts.”

“Like CANCER! They don’t just invade a biosphere, they infect it, co-opt it, turning the local fauna like them and consume everything. They’ve wiped out entire planets like that, solar systems.”

“THE UNIVERSE!” Cried out the alien woman on the floor, hot tears streaking down her translucent cheeks as she looked up at the ceiling lights in abject horror. “THEY KILLED A UNIVERSE! And now they want ours!!!”

Telling the guards to ease down, Fury watched as three paramedics entered the room and knelt to the now sobbing creature, overwhelmed by the memories in her mind until gentle hands brought a blanket around her shoulders and gently calmed her down. Fury’s attention then fell on Susan, the woman steeling herself now that she realised just how dangerous she and the others were. “I need a plan to deal with your kid Mrs. Richards. If she’s planning to invade, I want to make sure I have the means to stop her.”

“I’ve been working on the gene trigger that freed Susan over the course of the last two weeks, I can create more.”

“Then you’re going to need a lot more Reed.” Explained Susan, giving her husband a worried look. “A LOT more.”

“I’ll have HERBIE work on that right now, in the meantime Director Fury, I’ve also come up with something that should protect us from getting infected and turning.” Pulling a vial from his pocket, he handed it over to the director who eyed the glass vial with curiosity.

“What is it?”

“The species is picky about hosts to infect; it has a distaste for… Unhealthy subjects.” Seeing the man look confused, he continued. “That vial is a chemical agent that should give you the same symptoms as the common cold, it’s harmless, but to the hive, they’ll think you’re spoiled, unusable.”

“Never thought the best gift to get from a colleague would be the flu.” Handing the vial to one of the medical staff tending to the others, Fury turned his attention back to the Fantastic Four and back to Susan Storm. “I need you to think Mrs. Richards, I need you to think REAL hard on this, where is Lilith now?”