6.2. Royals
Episode 1 – The Universal Inhumans
We open on the Astarion. Medusa and Captain Swain are discussing their journey, and how close they are to Kymellia II. Flint asks about the Universal Inhumans, and Gorgon Petragon gives him a rundown.
As they talk, Swain warns them they've got incoming, and they all stare out of the window in horror as they see a huge mass of Chitauri, including several colonised Star-Whales. A group of Thanos's Armies.
Swain tries to sneak through, turning the engines to low and dropping the lights, but it doesn't work, and the Chitauri spot them. Seeing there's no other option, she guns it, relying on the Astarion's being smaller and quicker than the Chitauri crafts. Unfortunately there's to many of them, and some manage to land on the roof of the ship and start tearing it apart.
Donning space-suits, Gorgon takes Flint out onto the exterior of the ship, their suits magnetising to the ship. Gorgon can't use his hooves, but he has a sword and he gives Flint an energy gun, which Flint is terrified of using. They clear the top of the ship, but there are thousands of Chitauri and they just keep coming. Despairing, Flint asks what he's supposed to do, and Gorgon points to the Mothership, explaining that it's the central hivemind for the fleet. At first Flint doesn't understand what he means, and then he realises they're coming up on an asteroid base.
Using his powers, he grabs an asteroid and flings it at the Mothership, sending it careening off course. Instantly all the Chitauri turn around, headed back to protect it. Repeating to himself that they'd tried to kill him first, Flint grabs the biggest asteroid, almost the size of a planet, and ploughs it into the mothership, destroying it and all the Chitauri near it in one go.
Back inside the ship, Gorgon, Swain, and Medusa all congratulate Flint on his victory, while Black Bolt is conspicuously silent. Abruptly, Medusa turns on him, demanding he reveal itself. He signs that he doesn't know what she means, and she responds that he may be a bad king, and a worse husband, but no matter what else he is, Black Bolt has never been the sort of man who would stand by and do nothing while his family are in danger.
When he starts to sign a defence, Medusa grabs him with her hair, slamming him bodily into the wall. Instead of being intimidated, Black Bolt starts to laugh. Afraid, Gorgon jumps back, expecting the sound to destroy the ship, but instead the apparent Black Bolt drops his illusion, revealing himself as Maximus the Mad. When Medusa demands to know what he did with Black Bolt, he says that it wasn't him who had done something to his brother, but her, and she realises that she'd condemned her own husband to the Forgotten Prison.
The crew discuss whether rescuing Black Bolt is possible, but Medusa insists it isn't. There's no way back from the prison. Maximus comments that he thought she might already know and that was why her hair was falling out, and we see that the floor around Maximus's feet is covered in scarlett hair, and there's balding spot on the side of Medusa's head. Just as they're all arguing about what to do with Maximus, Swain warns them that they'd better make a quick decision, because they're coming up on Chitauri IV.
The crew alight on the planet. Medusa has put her hair up to disguise the bald spot, and Gorgon is dragging Maximus, chained and wearing a power-dampener, behind him. They are greeted by members of the Light Brigade, including Kal Blackbane who appears to be an old friend of Gorgon's.
As Gorgon is ushered into the council chamber, the others are told they can't accompany her. Kal offers to take Gorgon out drinking, and he passes Maximus's chains to Swain, commenting that if he were to get out then his powers shouldn't work on her. The other members of the Light Brigade take Flint and Swain to the arena where they train. Swain chooses to keep to herself, taking a seat right at the back of the room with Maximus.
In the council chamber, Medusa explains to the Universal Inhumans why they are there - about the loss of their Terrigen supplies, and their search for a replacement. We learn from the other Queens that each of the Inhuman species uses a different mutagenic agent, and they are not cross-species compatible. Then the Queen of the Fifth Caste asks why Medusa is here alone, without her husband.
Kal and Gorgon walk through the town, talking about everything that's happened since they last saw one another. Kal encourages Gorgon to share his emotions about the fall of Attilan, since Kymellians believe that emotional honesty is an important feature of being a warrior. Just as they turn into an alley, we see that they're being followed by two shadowy figures.
In the arena, Flint looses a match, and his combatant tells him that the problem is that he doesn't know himself yet, but that next time they meet Flint will do better. Watching the match below, Maximus begins working on Swain in his own twisted way, guessing that her emotional manipulation powers make it impossible for her to form genuine friendships. As he's talking, Swain suddenly realises that it's been hours and there's still no sign of Gorgon. She tells Flint when he comes over, and he agrees that they should go looking. Flint's new friend from the arena and a couple of other members of the Brigade decide to acompany them.
They find the alley, where they find Kal Blackbane, bleeding out. He just has enough energy to tell them "Zn'rk" before passing out. Flint thinks this is a nonsense word, but Swain recognises it.
On board the Snark ship, Gorgon comes too, finding himself in chains. The Snark prince boasts about stealing his weapon, and he says that he has other swords. The Snark laughs, and says he doesn't mean his sword, and we pan out to see that Gorgon's legs end in normal feet instead of hooves.
As the Snark prince monolgues about how his revolutionary technology for stealing superpowers will allow him to win Snarkwar, Flint and the others bust through the wall of the ship. The Prince uses Gorgon's power to generate an earthquake, but Flint just laughs at him, saying that he's been training with Gorgon every day in preparation for this journey. They succeed in taking out most of the Snark soldiers, and Maximus, after pausing to mock Gorgon for loosing his powers, figures out how to reverse the Snark machine, allowing Gorgon to smash his way out of his chains. In the confusion, several Snarks escape.
The group head back to the councilhouse, jubilant about their victory. However the light mood is soon ruined when Medusa storms out of the council chamber, and we hear the other Queens calling her 'king-slayer', 'betrayer', and ordering her to leave and never return.
Apparently not noticing their mood, Medusa storms past the rest of the crew and tersely orders them back to the ship, saying they'll get no help here.
Episode 2 – Marvel Boy
We open in Xandar. The crew decide to head to a bar to ask about possible leads, however as soon as they've ordered their drinks, Maximus immediately starts a fight. While Gorgon, Flint, and Swain fight, Medusa just sits at the bar and drinks. When some gets too close, she uses her hair to grab them and shove them out of the way, and then winces, rubbing her head, and we see a new bald spot.
As she's sitting there, a figure in a cloak tells Medusa she's dropped something and hands her a holo-recorder. When she turns to tell them it's not hers, the figure as vanished. As she examines it, the recorder begins to play a message from a stranger, who tells them that he knows what they're looking for and can help them, but first they'll need to break up the fight. Medusa calls Maximus over and asks him what he thinks, so which he replies that its too stupid to be a trap.
In a Nova Corps station, Noh-Varr is sitting in the holding cell, humming the Supremes. A guard asks him repeatedly to stop, but he refuses. As the guard gets to up to force him to stop, Noh says, "right on time", and the wall of the cell shatters, revealing Gorgon on the other side.
Complaining that he'd been hoping for something a little less showy, Noh-Varr climbs out of the hole and he and Gorgon and Flint make a run for the Astarion, persued by the Nova Corps soldiers. After a chase through the streets of Xandar they make it back to the ship, and tell Swain to gun it. As the ship rises over the skyline of Xandar city we see a fleet of Star-Blasters rusing behind them.
As they careen through space, desperately trying to avoid the enemy fire and keep ahead of the Star-Blasters, Noh explains to Medusa that he'd heard they'd been asking about Terrigen. He says that the records of the Inhuman experiments should still be in the archives on Hala. When Swain says that Hala was destroyed, Noh says that the archives were some of the most highly protected places anywhere on the planet, and he has faith they'll still be standing.
When they ask why he wants to get to Hala, he refuses to tell them. Before they can press him further, they take a hit right to the engines and Swain warns that they're about to crash.
Episode 3 – Plex
The ship crashlands in the ruins of Hala. Noh-Varr tells them that the archives are in the old government buildings, at the centre of the city. As he's talking, a laser blast flies past his ear, and he casually mentions that the automated defenses must still be active.
They are forced to fight their way through waves of sentinel-bots and turrets. During the battle, Noh uses his Pocket Backfield to temporarily remove the gravity, floating the robots up before crashing them back to earth.
Finally they reach the remains of the old government building. It's missing a roof, but it still has doors, and Noh tells them that the robots can't enter the building so they're safe inside. Medusa asks where the archives are, and Noh tells them that first they need to do what he came for. From his bag, he produces a glowing green brain in a jar. When Flint, understandably horrified, demands to know if it's really a brain, Medusa, recognising it says no. It's an artificial intelligence.
In the former Supreme Intelligence chamber, Noh installs the brain computer. After a moment, a huge green face appears before them, floating in the air. When Noh-Varr addresses it as Supreme Intelligence, it replies no, it is the Plex Intelligence, a googleplex more intelligent that an individual Kree, but not superior too them, to which Noh-Varr says that it worked.
Medusa asks Plex if it will help them, to which it agrees, and so she sets out their problem. While it searches the archives, which she says might take some time due to many of the files being damages, and also being thousands of years old. It also sends the sentry-bots to repair the Astarion, and Swain goes to supervise them.
While Plex is processing, Medusa wonders away from the group, and when she doesn't come back, Gorgon goes after her, finding her crying about Black Bolt and the awful things that have happened to them, and comforts her. They debate what to do about Maximus, but decide that neither of them can bring themselves to kill one of their family, and they can't ask anyone else to do it, and he's way too dangerous to just let go, so they're going to have to take him with them.
Plex finds the reports from the original Inhuman experiments. The homeworlds of the Universal Inhumans were not picked at random - instead, they were picked because they were the planets where mysterious objects which the Kree called Skyspears had landed. These skyspears contained small amounts of an unknown mutagen which the Kree weren't able to recreate which they named Primagen. Left to their own devices, these skyspears mutated the creatures around them, which the Kree thought was fascinating. They experimented with the primagen, creating terrigen on earth, isogen on Centauri, amphogen on moord, etc. Eventually the primagen ran out and they abandonned the experiments. All except one - on Centauri they didn't get to that point, because the Incentaurans rose up much sooner than the inhumans, and drove them out.
Before they leave, Plex orders them to take Noh-Varr with them. Although he initially objects, believing his duty is to remain to help build Hala-in-the-Highest, but Plex says that this is a chance to advance Kree scientific understanding that should not be overlooked, and Medusa agrees to take him.
Episode 4 – the Sky Spear
Figuring there might be some clues there, they head to Centauri IV. Unfortunately, the city is under seige by one of the Snark faction. Swain puts the Astarion down as close to the skyspear as possible and goes to talk to the Incentaurans about refueling and getting more info about the spears, while the rest of the crew head off to look at the spear.
They find it okay, but can't figure out anything useful except that it makes them all feel kind of weird. Gorgon uses his powers on it, but can't crack it open.
Their frustration quickly devolves into arguements, first between Medusa and Maximus, and later Gorgon as well when he jumps to Medusa's defence. Maximus accused Gorgon of lusting after Medusa, which makes him so angry he physically attacks Maximus. Medusa uses her hair to pull him back, but it's obviously painful to her, and she collapses, Gorgon rushing to her side.
Just as Flint suggests that maybe he can talk to the minerals in the casing, desperate to try and stop the fighting, a group of Zn'rks turn up and attack them.
It looks as if they're going to be overwhealmed, when Flint, who had touched the casing and them frozen, not participating in the fight, turns around and takes all of them out with lumps of rock, and then collapses.
Flint wakes up in the house of Panacea, an Incentauran with healing abilities and Swain's girlfriend, to find that his left arm is now encased in a layer of crystal. He still seems to be able to move it, but it's hard as diamond and about as shiny. When Panacea comes to check on him, he makes her promise not to tell anyone and she fashions a sling for him to hide it.
The crew reconvene to discuss their next move. They haven't been able to learn anything useful from the incentaurans, they haven't been able to get into the skyspear, it's generally a bad time. Then Maximus reveals that while they've been doing that, he's been working with the Astarion's onboard AI to calculate the tragectory that the skyspear must have taken to get to Centauri IV, and if they follow his calculations, they'll eventually get to the point of origin.
The crew are understandably uncomfortable with doing anything Maximus wants them too, given his proven history of being a power mad dictator, but they lack any other option, so they agree.
Before they leave, Panacea takes Medusa to one side and tells her that the reason her powers are turning against her is that her systems are rejecting the terrigen in their blood. Given the quasi-magical nature of terrigen, she suggests that this might be because Medusa has failed her people.
Frightened and full of guilt, Medusa turns to Gorgon for comfort, and the two spend the night together.
The next day they set off following Maximus's coordinates. Swain plots a course that avoids any major battlefields in either Snarkwar or the Kree Civil War, but eventually the path will take them past the galactic rim, into uncharted deep space.
Episode 5 – The World-Garden
The next day they set off following Maximus's coordinates. Swain plots a course that avoids any major battlefields in either Snarkwar or the Kree Civil War, but eventually the path will take them past the galactic rim, into uncharted deep space.
They travel for many days, the space growing less and less well mapped and more and more lawless as they go. Medusa broods on her apparently cosmically ordained iminent death, spending her nights with Gorgon but refusing to talk even to him about what happened to her. Maximus figures out quickly that Medusa and Gorgon are still sleeping together, resulting in Medusa eventually having him detained in his quarters. Flint is still hidng the crystal skin, which seems to be growing by the day. The last days of the trip pass in sullen silence, as even Swain gives up trying to cheer people up.
By the time they find a planet, right where Maximus had predicted, they're more relieved to have an excuse to get out of the ship than they are at finding what they've been looking for.
Outside the ship, they the World Garden, an extraordinary garden filled with bizarre plants. The garden is being tended by Progenitors, vast robots who peacefully tend the plants.
The group walk through the Garden, fascinated and charmed by the inhuman beauty of the place. However when Flint can't resist picking a flower, the Progenitors all converge on them, firing laser weapons and trying to catch them in their enormous hands.
Medusa fights back, but when she tries to pull on of their hands away, her hair tears, making her scream in agony, before the Progenitor backhands her into a rock. Distracted by his worry for her, Gorgon's attention flickers and he's knocked unconcious, quickly followed by Swain.
Realising there's no other options, and desperately trying to survive, Flint gives into Maximus's urges and removes his power dampener.
Episode 6 - The Moon King
Maximus uses his powers to disguise them from the Progenitors, convincing them that there's nothing to see, allowing him and Flint to gather up the rest of the crew and make a run for it.They wander around the garden for a bit, before Flint notices the crystals on his arm are vibrating if he goes in certain directions, which he can use to locate the primagen.
They manage to steal a decent chunk of it, but that sets off a bunch of alarms. Being near to the primagen seems to boost all their powers, but even that isn't enough.
Flint throws up a wall, but it's clear that the Projenitors will break through it soon. Eventually Gorgon insists on staying behind to hold them off. He and Medusa share one last kiss and they make a run for it. Gorgon uses his powers to bring down the wall, crushing the progenitors and himself, but buying them time to get back to the Astarion.
They get the hell out of dodge, but Swain quickly realises that a Progenitor vessel is following them, and even jumping to lightspeed isn't enough to shake them, since they're tracking the primagen.
Realising they're going to have to stand and fight, they decide to use the ruins of Attilan as their battleground, since it's deserted, and they have to get the primagen back to earth somehow.
On the Moon, Noh-Varr uses his pocket battlefield to create a temporary breathable atmosphere. Medusa and Maximus each take some of the primagen, enhancing their powers. Flint is offered but refusus - the fight in the Garden had sped up the crystalisation process, and most of his chest is now crystal, and he's terrified of what more primagen exposure might do.
When the Progenitors arrive, the enhancements seem initially to be working, but it quickly becomes clear that nothing can stop them. Maximus is doing what he can to shield other members of the Expidition from the Progenitor's view, but when he's hit by debri he looses his concentration. Seeing a Progenitor about to kill Medusa, he dives in front of his cousin, sacrificing his life to save her.
The enraged Medusa turns on their attacker, tearing it limb from limb with her hair, but it is able to reassemble itself, and she has overtaxed herself and lacks the strength to fight back. Swain and Noh-Varr are similarly beaten, worn out and injured, unable to fight on.
Realising he has no other choice, Flint picks up the Primagen.
The crystal which has been slowly covering his body grows out to cover all his remaining skin in an instant, leaving him still recognisable but utterly alien, and as the sun appears over the horizon, its rays catch the crystals lighting him with blinding irridescent light.
He raised himself and the other members of the Expidition up on floating platorms of rock, then he cracks open his the moon like an egg, opening a vast yawning cavern. On earth, we see freak waves, roaring up the beaches of Hawai'i, while NuHumans from New Attilan arrive to evacuate people.
Back on the moon, the chasm widens and widens until the progenitors have nowhere left to cling onto, and one by one they fall into the chasm. When the last one has fall, Flint closes the moon back up with a snap, trapping the progenitors inside.
The platorms the Expidition are standing on lower themselves to the ground. Medusa immediately asks Flint if he's okay, and he says he's never been better, and now has she. He reaches out and cups her face, and as soon as he touches her skin, the patches of hair begin to grow back, and the pallour of her sickness fades from her skin. Shocked, she realises that the crystal of Flint's body is Primagen - living primagen. The Inhumans are saved.
Later on New Attilan, the crew says their goodbyes - Flint is remaining to help run New Attilan, Noh-Varr is returning to Hala, and Medusa and Swain are setting off to distribute primagen to the universal inhuman homeworlds.
In a final post credit scene, a crew of Silnusi deep-space scavagers pick up a lump of crystal floating in deep space. To their astonishment, when they get it onboard, something inside it starts to drum against the inside of the crystal, hitting it harder and harder until cracks begin to form. Finally with one last shove, it falls apart, revealing Gorgon, still very much alive.
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