When an enormous beehive appeared overnight in the remains of the Great Forest, and people started disappearing when they ventured near it, the Freedom Fighters became more than a little suspicious. Nothing had grown there since its destruction by Eggman’s Egg Fleet, and yet, as the hive appeared, so did life return to the area. The trees regrew, the flowers bloomed, and everything seemed to be healing. Naturally, in world where people had all kinds of strange powers, and gods were proven to both exist and be extremely temperamental, this caused a feeling of fear among the populace. What if the new arrivals were hostile? Could they be repelled? The Council of Acorn made a decision to send a peace envoy, consisting of Rosemary Prower, Hamlin, and King Elias himself. They ventured into the forest under heavy guard, and reported back that the flowers and plants were not just growing again- they were huge, and being looked after by a wide array of creatures, primarily bees, in both Mobian and giant-non-Mobian varieties, but also creatures that looked like a mix of bees and other creatures, Mobian and human alike. Not long after that, contact was lost, and it remained that way for three whole days, before Hamlin turned up, stumbling around in a daze on the edge of the forest. Initially, Sonic had laughed about this, joking at even the weird bee-people didn’t want Hamlin, but quickly realised the implications: They didn’t want Hamlin, but they did want Elias and Rosemary. His girlfriend’s brother and his closest friend’s mother had been taken by the strange invaders in the forest. He recalled them mentioning the strange hybrids they had seen servicing the plants, and immediately come up with an answer that he wished he hadn’t. Immediately, the blue hero had attempted to grill Hamlin for information, but the pig had only burbled dimly at him. Asking Nicole to provide a mental scan had achieved nothing. Whatever had been done to him had completely blanked his mind, to the point that he couldn’t even speak basic English anymore. Sonic decided to take matters into his own hands, and rushed off into the forest. Sally had tried to stop him, to warn him that he was being reckless, that as much as she and Tails appreciated his dedication they needed to come up with a plan, send scout drones and learn what the bees were doing. The intervention had been an abject failure. Not only had she not managed to convince Sonic to stop and do things the logical way, Tails had decided to go with Sonic. Neither had been heard from since. Now Sally stood in the Freedom Fighters’ armoury, looking up at the suit in front of her. It was a mix between armour and a biohazard suit, equipped to cover her entire body and filter any harmful chemicals out of the air. The gaps between the plates were filled with a flexible, tough, airtight material, and this, combined with the servos built into the armour, allowed her to move with the same grace and finesse that she had when completely exposed. “Are you sure about this, Sally?” Nicole asked. “It won’t take long for Rotor and I to make these for the whole team.” “No, I have to do this alone. If it’s just me, then I’ve got a better chance of not being noticed.” “These suits have active camo, we could easily all go and not be seen.” Amy folded her arms, huffing indignantly. “Bees can see infrared and ultraviolet.” Sally sighed. “Even if I’m invisible, my body heat, and the heat from the systems, will give me away. I’ll be better off running away than hiding, and I don’t think anyone here is as adapted for doing that in a forest as I am.” It was true. While Sally possessed no real super-speed, she was very fast for a normal Mobian, and her squirrel heritage made her a perfectly-well adapted climber, albeit not as good as her brother due to the lack of a long tail for balance. Amy could outpace her on the ground, but in the forest, Sally held an advantage over her allies. “Alright… but… Please, come back safe, Sally-Gal.” Bunnie said, hugging her. “We can’t lose any more.” “We won’t.” Sally replied, as she picked up the body glove. “Now, some privacy would be appreciated.” Getting the suit on wasn’t hard with Nicole’s help. The body glove felt like a wetsuit, and slipped on just as quickly. The metal pieces were laid over the top by the lynx, and once the suit was complete, the whole thing sealed, the filters activating to enable her to breathe. She bid her friends a fond farewell, and climbed onto a small hoverbike, racing toward the reborn forest. The journey was a lot slower than she had anticipated. She normally made it cradled in Sonic’s arms, and as such, got there a lot faster than she could on her bike. Once she reached the edge of the treeline, she dismounted the bike, and began to carefully and quietly tread through the woods. Part of her was thrilled, seeing her old home once again vibrant and teeming with life, but that feeling faded when she saw the first flower. It was impossibly large, about the size of a room. Its bright yellow petals seemed to glow in the sunlight, filtering down through the canopy of the forest. It smelled gorgeous, like a mix of the best-scented plants she knew of in one plant. Something inside it buzzed, and a Mobian bee climbed out of it, spread her wings, and flew off, in the general direction of the hive. The hive itself was hard to miss. It stood at the same height as the Acorn Palace, and seemed to spread randomly in various directions. Its outer surface was covered in a golden shell, protecting anything inside from harm, but it was dotted with the occasional hole, allowing the occupants to buzz in and out. Internally, Sally knew that searching the forest for her family and friends was unlikely to yield any results. If she wanted answers about what was going on, she’d have to get inside the hive. So she carefully followed the buzzing of the first bee she’d seen, diving into cover whenever another one appeared flying toward her, or when her quarry entered another flower to do her work. Yet, as she finally spotted the base of the hive, resting in a clearing she and Sonic had frequented before the forest’s destruction, the buzzing got louder, and she looked up just in time to see one of the non-Mobian bees. It was all too large for her tastes, easily as long as her hoverbike, with huge, black, unfeeling eyes, wings droning as they beat continuously, and a stinger about as long as the swords she had taken to practicing with. It pointed the weapon at her, and dove, but she rolled aside, reaching for one of her suit’s in-built knives. The creature’s sting stick into the dirt, but it pulled free and turned to face her again. She quickly noticed that the telltale barbs of the insect’s sting, which made using it a fatal move for the creature, were absent. She gulped, too distracted with the observation to notice the angry buzzing get louder, as another of the bees appeared, and stuck its stinger between the plates of her armour. It pierced the body glove and embedded itself in her shoulder. Sally screamed, as warnings flashed up all over the suit’s visor, and alarms blared in her ears. “WARNING! SEAL BREACHED! WARNING! SEAL BREACHED!” The bee stayed in the air, lowering itself slightly as she sank to her knees. Something was being pumped into her body, making her head swim. Her vision blurred, as she fell forward. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and everything went black as she felt six limbs close around her prone form. *** Blearily, Sally’s eyes began to flutter open. She blinked several times, and tried to wipe the sand from the corners of her eyes, only to find that her arms couldn’t move. Struggling and squirming for a few moments, blinking rapidly to clear her vision, she achieved nothing, and slumped back. Looking down, she found her body stripped bare, forced into a seated position, and encased in sticky, solid honey. She yelped in surprise and embarrassment, and renewed her efforts, until the sound of soft, humming laughter reached her ears. She froze, looking around the room, until the other being caught her eye, and she stared. Her captor was like no Mobian she’d ever seen. Most bees tended be small, but this one was a nearly twice her height. Her figure was curvy, wide hips, large breasts, slim waist. She had two pairs of arms, each ending in delicate hands with three digits apiece. Her legs were long and shapely, and like her hands, her feet had three toes, two facing forward, one facing back. Her face was similar in shape to any other Mobian, albeit her “muzzle” didn’t jut out as far, and she had no nose, instead having a pair of antennae extending from the top of her forehead. Two pairs of translucent wings extended from her shoulders, and a large, egg-shaped abdomen protruded from her backside, with a sharp stinger sticking out of the thinnest point. The exposed skin on her limbs and antennae was black, shiny, and smooth, looking more like leather or latex clothing than chitin, while her torso, abdomen, and head were covered in a layer of yellow fur, especially thick and fluffy on her chest, and marked with black stripes from her midsection downwards. Her voluminous hair was the same colour, and hung down almost to her ankles. Her eyes were black, foreboding orbs with a golden iris and pupil, half-lidded. The bee woman smiled at Sally, and swayed over to her, her chitinous feet click-clacking on the floor as she walked. “Hello, my dear.” She smiled, sitting on another honey seat opposite the squirrel. “I’m sorry my soldiers were so rough with you. They worry about their Mobian sisters, and in that suit of yours, you looked like a machine.” “Ungh… who are you?” Sally asked, head still pounding. “What is this place?” “This is the Royal Hive, and I am the Queen, Anthea Apis.” She introduced herself. “Everybody here calls me Mother, though. And your name?” “Sally Alicia Acorn, Princess of the Acorn Republic.” The squirrel replied. Anthea nodded, still smiling serenely. “So what brings a lady like yourself here?” “My friends… People have been disappearing here, and my brother came here as part of a Peace Envoy… but we lost contact and they disappeared. One of them appeared later, but his mind had been destroyed. My boyfriend and another of our allies, whose mother was part of the envoy, came to try and find them, and disappeared too. I came alone, in the hope that I could move better without others following, and escape more quickly if I did get attacked. Unfortunately… it didn’t work out.” “Yes, you take a nasty dose of venom… My soldiers’ venom is made to eat metal, but it doesn’t have the same effect on flesh and blood, fortunately.” Anthea went on. “I must apologize for the honey prison. I didn’t want you to freak out when you woke up. As a bonus, though, it is fixing your shoulder up, so you should be fine shortly.” “Alright… Do you know what happened to my friends?” “Oh yes, I do.” Anthea nodded. “They’re here, and very happy to be so.” “What do you mean?” “I mean they’re a part of the hive now.” Sally froze again. Immediately, Anthea seemed a lot less welcoming. Her tone had changed, the soft hum in her words becoming a more menacing buzz. “W-what do you mean?” “I mean, I looked into their minds, saw how troubled and upset and frightened they were, and knew I could make them much happier by assimilating them, so I gave them my special honey, and they joined the hive.” Anthea smiled. “I recognise you now, from the memories of the others… Your boyfriend is the blue one, isn’t he?” “Y-yes…” Sally nodded. Normally, she would be angrily demanding their release, but being trapped and at the mercy of the Queen filled her with more fear than fury. “Oh, I’m so glad that he and his yellow friend came! They’re so fast, so productive! I had to break one of my rules just for them, you know.” “What do you mean?!” She cried, tears welling up in her eyes. “Well, you know bee biology, right? Women are workers, and men are drones. They’re pretty useless for anything other than sex. But those two put up such a good fight that I knew they simply had to be workers, so I went the extra mile with their transformations and turned them into more daughters! They’re so effective, so efficient, we should be able to up our expansion rate even further!” “I… I don’t understand… How are they daughters? What do you mean by “expansion”?” Sally asked, tears flowing freely now. “It’s not hard to grasp.” Anthea smiled. She stood up and leaned forward, bracing herself against Sally’s chair with one set of arms, drying her eyes with the other. “They’re daughters because they’re female. Our expansion means that we’re spreading over Mobius. The planet is war-torn and horrible people live everywhere, so we’re going to cover the planet in forests and hives, and turn everyone into a lovely worker or a drone. Some people, like Eggman, or that pig, are too horrible to receive this gift, though, so we just blank them and leave them.” “Why not just take over the monsters and let the rest of us live in peace?” Sally demanded. “Because we need to expand the hive to do it, and need more workers and soldiers do so.” Anthea replied. “Besides, the rest of you have instigated wars too. It was the Acorns that invoked the Great War, it was the Freedom Fighters that provoked the Suppression Squad. Robotnik was a trusted man before he took over, and any freak accident could turn a normal person into a lunatic like Finitevus. And that’s only the world-threatening evils, what about regular, street level crime, or abuse of children and spouses? You are all capable of evil. The hive is not, they all serve their Mother. It is better to make all become one in the hive. I will guide Mobius to a better, safer, peaceful future, and you will help me.” “I will do no such thing!” Sally roared, struggling even more. “Oh, you will. In fact, you’re perfect for a role I need to fill: A successor.” Anthea smiled. “See, I’m very old. Much older than I look. We don’t age the same way that mammals do. We can live for a very long time, but eventually, we will die. And when that time comes, I will have to appoint a successor. Unfortunately, I am incapable of providing one when it comes to Mobians.” She sighed. “You might’ve noticed that I have both an ovipositor and a vagina. Were I to be impregnated via one of my non-Mobian drones, I would lay a batch of eggs from the former, and they would hatch into new non-Mobian bees. In theory, I should be able to breed with a Mobian drone and produce a new Mobian bee to raise as my daughter. Unfortunately, I cannot. It happens sometimes, and we just have to move on and convert a new Queen rather than birth one. Imagine my delight when a genuine Princess fell straight into my lap! And from what I gleaned from the others, you will make a perfect Queen for them when I am gone!” “No… I won’t do it!” She squirmed. “My friends will stop you and rescue all of us!” Anthea stood up, sighing slightly. “Is that so? I already have three of you, yourself included, and I doubt the others will be able to do any more to me than you have.” She said. “Now, let’s take a look inside that head of yours.” Anthea patted herself off, and then leaned down again, her eyes drawing level with Sally’s. A bright glow began to emanate from them. She tried to turn away, but two of the bee’s arms grabbed her head, holding it straight, the other pair pinning her eyelids open. The glow filled Sally’s vision, blocking out everything else as it pulsed continuously.  Her eyes began to glaze over, as Anthea entered her mind without much in the way of effort. “Let’s find those memories… Oh, you and the blue one have had a turbulent time… yet you raised the yellow one together? How sweet.” She smiled. “I’ll assign those two to you, my dear.” “S-Sonic… Tails…” “Oh dear… you’ve been at war since you were only five? How terrible… Darling, I promise you… you won’t have to fight another war ever again.” “Mnnngh… No more…fighting…” “That’s right…” She cooed, stroking the entranced squirrel’s hair. “People have used you, lied to you, betrayed you… That won’t happen again, darling. You’ll only have loyal friends from now on.” “Yes… no betrayal…” Sally murmured, beginning to smile faintly. Anthea beamed. Her method was simple: Dig through her captive’s memories, promise more of the good, and none of the bad, luring the already suggestible prisoners even deeper into their hypnosis. “Oh… oh dear… Your father is a horrible man… So controlling, so emotionally abusive…” The Queen said sadly. She cracked the chair open, freeing Sally’s body, and carried her over to her own chair, sitting down with the squirrel in her lap. “Forget him… You’re my daughter now, and I promise I’ll treat you with all the love and care you deserve. I’m your new Mother, Sally...” “Mother…” Sally’s smile widened, as she nuzzled into Anthea’s arms. “You’re my princess.” “I’m… your princess…” “Good girl.” “Good… girl…” Anthea smiled contently, and carefully guided her entrance captive’s head to her breast. “Drink up, Sally.” She nudged. The squirrel immediately obeyed, latching on and beginning to thirstily gulp down the liquid. It tasted like… honey, and immediately, she swallowed as much as she could, then went in for another mouthful. All the while, Anthea petted and stroked her, and kissed her forehead several times. Sally soon consumed her fill of honey, and laid back in Anthea’s arms. “You’re almost ready, my dear.” She cooed. “Just your physical change left.” “Yes… Mother…” She moaned, rubbing her rather full belly. Her mother held her close, standing upright, then opened her wings and flew out of the room. Sally sat limp in her grip, watching the sights of the hive go past. She saw her new people, hard at work, and it filled her with a sense of satisfaction. She quickly found herself in a chamber where the floor was covered in cells, some open, some closed, and one cracking open, with a new bee/Mobian hybrid crawling out. “When you’re sealed in, something will try and get into your mouth. Just let it, okay?” “Yes… Mother…” Sally nodded, allowing herself to be lowered into a cell, which was immediately sealed with wax. Surrounded by the golden glow, Sally spotted a fleshy tube of some kind lowering toward her mouth. Obeying her mother’s command, she opened wide, allowing it to come to rest at the back of her mouth, yet she still didn’t gag. Something began flowing down her throat: Royal jelly, the substance that would-be Queens consumed. She helpfully swallowed it all, as the whole cell began to fill with honey.  It immersed her small body, leaving her floating in warm, sweet, orange-yellow goo. Her eyes closed again, and she slipped into a deep slumber. In her sleep, she continued to consume the jelly, as her fur began to change colours. All the fur on her face, torso, and tail turned yellow, before being covered in black stripes below her chest. The fur on her arms and legs fell out, exposing new black, shiny skin. Her shoulders shifted, as a second pair of arms grew out from them. Her feet twisted, one toe receding as the others closed in. The third toe reappeared where her heel had been. Her new arms only had three digits, but her original pair quickly followed suite, the third and fourth fingers merging, her index and second fingers doing the same. Her tail began to grow, getting longer and wider, but at the same time stiffer, until it formed the same fluffy, segmented shape as Anthea’s. A sharp, barbless stinger extended from the tip. The fur on her chest fluffed up into a thick, warm collar, while a pair of black antennae grew out of her forehead, but aside from that, her face didn’t change much. Her hair began to grow, tumbling down to the small of her back and turning blonde. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment, exposing black orbs with yellow pupils, before she drifted off again. Finally, two pairs of clear wings grew out of her shoulder blades, still scrunched up in the small cell. The changes were mostly done, but Sally continued to eat her royal jelly, until finally, she felt the urge to leave. Clawing her way upwards, Sally began to break through the beeswax top of the cell, and soon received a helping hand from some workers. She scrabbled onto the floor of the room, resting on her hands and knees, as her wings unfolded and began to dry out. A pair of arms wrapped around her, as Anthea picked her up. “Hello, Sally.” She cooed, giving the dazed hybrid a faceful of mind-altering pheromones, the last piece of her extensive control over the former squirrel. Her head spun, the whole room distorting for a moment, as everything finally clicked into place. She opened her black eyes, and smiled softly. “Hello, Mother.” The bee princess hummed, as her wings began to beat, and she lifted into the air, hovering around the Queen. Anthea embraced her again “I love you.” “And I love you too, my darling Sally.”