H.I.V.E. (series)
H.I.V.E. (short for Higher Institute of Villainous Education) is a series of young adult fiction novels by Mark Walden. Plot overview. H.I.V.E., the Higher Institute of Villainous Education, is a top-secret school hidden inside a still active volcano. The school is a part of G.L.O.V.E., the Global League of Villainous Enterprises, and was built for the purpose of training children to become criminal masterminds. Only children who have already been seen to have some villainous skill are accepted to the school. The school has four streams; the Alpha stream, Henchmen stream, Technical stream, and the Political/Financial  stream. Each stream is associated with a color, and their uniforms reflect this. Alphas have black, Henchman has blue, Technical is white, and Political/Financial is grey. Otto Malpense is a thirteen-year-old criminal genius, who has been handpicked along with others-the most intelligent, most athletic, technologically advanced children in the world to be part of H.I.V.E. In the first book, Otto has entered the school; he discovers that it is not all that it seems, and sets out to unfold the mystery behind the school and its organization. Otto and his friends, Wing, Shelby, and Laura try  to defy the headmaster, Dr. Maximilian Nero, and try to accomplish something no one has ever succeeded in: escaping H.I.V.E. alive. Reception. H.I.V.E. has met with mostly favorable reviews. Jack Heath, author of "Money Run", said that "if you can suspend your disbelief far enough, you will find it a rewarding read... The dialogue is witty, the plot twists deft, and the setting inventive, with plenty of knowing nods to the comic books and Bond films which pioneered the super villain tropes." The first book was given a score of 4/5 on abc.net.au, where it was praised as having "adventure , sacrifice, mystery, surprises and evil doings." Summaries. Section::::"Higher Institute of Villainous Education". After realising that the government funding that keeps the orphanage from closing down is being cut, Otto Malpense creates a remotely controlled device that is able to hack into the teleprompter and cause it to hypnotize whoever looks into it. He creates the device with the intent to publicly embarrass the Prime Minister during one of his speeches. After successfully completing his objective, he is ambushed and stunned by Raven (an assassin that works for H.I.V.E) and then awakes to find himself in a helicopter, strapped to his  seat, and sitting across from a complete stranger. He finds out the stranger is named Wing Fanchu and they quickly become close friends. When the helicopter lands, Otto is informed that he will be spending the next six years of his life being schooled at H.I.V.E., the Higher Institute of Villainous Education. Dr. Nero, H.I.V.E's headmaster, is interested to know that it took more than two shots from Sleepers (knock-out weapons designed to replace tranquilizer darts) to capture Wing, enough to send a normal boy in a coma for a few weeks. He expresses his concerns to Raven  and asks her to keep a close eye on Wing and Otto. Meanwhile, Otto's special skills have marked him out as an Alpha — a leader of tomorrow. He quickly works out that his little stunt with the Prime Minister now has landed Otto at H.I.V.E though he has no intention of staying in this new prison, and be friends with many others who have been taken to H.I.V.E., like Laura Brand, Shelby Trinity, Nigel Darkdoom, and Franz Argentblum. Otto teams up with Wing, Laura, and Shelby, and together they hatch a daring escape plan. They travel through the hidden  parts of the school, but as they nearly reach their freedom, their headmaster, Dr. Nero, reveals that all along they have been going on an impossible mission. However, Nigel Darkdoom has managed to stir up his own trouble on this night, and an enormous, flesh-eating plant (named Violet) he has accidentally bred escapes from the hydroponics lab. Everyone, including the students, jump into action to save the school, and they succeed (despite Dr. Nero and many others being injured). Otto and Wing are suddenly given a small window of opportunity to leave the school forever, but at the last  second, they decide to stay. In the last chapter, it is revealed to the readers that Number One, Dr. Nero's boss and leader of G.L.O.V.E., in essence, has plans for Otto Malpense. Soon they will meet, and it will not be pretty. The Overlord Protocol. When Wing receives news of his father's death, he selects Otto to accompany him, under Raven's supervision, to the funeral. However, before they can attend the funeral, the trio is attacked by mysterious assassins. Wing appears to be shot by Cypher, a mysterious member of G.L.O.V.E. who wants to seize power and  close H.I.V.E. Otto and Raven barely escape with their lives, and hide in one of Raven's numerous, personal safe houses while awaiting instructions from Dr. Nero. Raven is to attempt to discover what Cypher is up to, with Otto at her side. They discover the unbeatable adversaries they battled with at the original safe house to be robots, engineered for combat. Cypher makes an attack on the school, threatening to kill the students of H.I.V.E to get what he wants. In a sudden turn of events, Wing is found alive, having been shot by a tranquilizer disguised as a  lethal bullet, and joins his friends in their attempt to save the school. Ultimately, they win the battle, leaving Cypher injured, but not fatally, and Nero insists that he be dead to everyone but himself and the doctor who treated the patient. Otto and his friends find out that Cypher is Wing's father, explaining his kidnapping Wing. In addition, during Dr. Nero's interrogation, Cypher reveals that his motive for attacking the school was a project named the Renaissance Initiative. This project seeks to recreate Overlord, a homicidal AI that wishes to kill everything on the planet. Cypher believed  that with the Overlord Protocol (A device allowing him to hack everything on the planet), and H.I.V.E. as hostage, he could attack the Renaissance Initiative, revealed to be led by no other than Number One. Otto and his friends find themselves glad to be out of danger and home for good, as well as excited that H.I.V.E.mind has had his personality functions restored. Section::::"Escape Velocity". Nero is kidnapped by H.O.P.E, the Hostile Operative Prosecution Executive, a new anti-terrorist organisation; and the Contessa takes over H.I.V.E. as headmistress with an elite guard known as the Phalanx. Otto, Wing, Laura, Shelby  and Raven are forced to escape the school after being extracted by Raven and join forces with Diabolus Darkdoom - Nigel's supposedly traitorous dead father - who takes charge from a massive submarine known as the Megalodon. However, it soon emerges that Overlord, inside Number One's body, is behind the entire plot. Otto is Number One's clone, designed as a perfect host body for Overlord. They assault H.O.P.E in order to reclaim Nero, but are captured and sent into space, to Number One's hideout. Otto only narrowly escapes being taken over by Number One/Overlord, and is forced  to delete H.I.V.E.mind in the process. Meanwhile, H.I.V.E. is under attack by the executioners known as the Reapers, the fights ensue as the teachers are shut out of H.I.V.E's systems, finally when all hope is lost the Contessa sacrifices herself to save the school by setting off a massive puddle of jet fuel. Section::::"Dreadnought". The arrival of new student Lucy Dexter causes some confusion among the students, although they quickly befriend her. On their way to a training mission, they briefly visit the Dreadnought, a new mobile command center for G.L.O.V.E. However, the mission is cancelled when the Dreadnought  becomes attacked by a rogue G.L.O.V.E. member. Nero, Raven and the students narrowly escape, but Diabolus Darkdoom is left behind and enemy agents that are sent after them. They soon discover that Lucy Dexter is actually Contessa's Granddaughter and can control people with her voice, which is useful for the adventures they go on. They attempt to rescue Diabolus and foil the plan to use American weaponry, controlled by Air Force One, to set off a super-volcano and destroy civilization. While they succeed in rescuing Darkdoom, Otto must stay behind on an out-of-control Air Force One  to disarm the weapon, and he passes out after being in a plane crash, leaving him in the custody of the U.S. Government. Trent speaks to the president then injects the Animus Fluid into Otto. Section::::"Rogue". Otto has been infected by Animuss , an organic supercomputer which can be programmed by H.O.P.E. to make Otto do their evil bidding. With a superhuman dangerous assassin called Ghost, he attacks members of G.L.O.V.E. Raven is on her own mission to find Sebastian Trent, but first, goes to a facility where there might be people with information. She gets to Khan and threatens him , so he starts to unlock his computer. As he is typing in his password, he is killed by a remote-controlled microexplosive device in his skull. She takes the laptop and just then, Nero picks her up to take her to the G.L.O.V.E. council meeting. At that meeting with the remaining G.L.O.V.E. members, who are waiting for Darkdoom to slip up, Darkdoom is pressured to make a decision. Eventually, Darkdoom issues a capture or kill order for Otto. During a later private meeting with Nero, Raven sees a sniper (Ghost) and just barely saves Darkdoom from being assassinated. While Darkdoom  is in the H.I.V.E. medical center being healed, Professor Pike and Laura Brand try to fix the school's sporadic technical problems. Raven tries to hack through the Khan's laptop with Professor Pike's help, and she finds a picture of a seed in one picture. After consulting the biotechnology teacher, she discovers that this seed is most commonly found in the Amazon, which is where she is headed. Wing, who desperately wants to find Otto, stows away with her on the Shroud, but the pair of them are captured by H.O.P.E. Meanwhile, amidst the chaos at H.I.V.E., Nero  brings another expert on artificial intelligence—a newly freed Cypher, to help investigate. They believe it to be Overlord, but it is actually H.I.V.E.mind rebuilding himself. Organic supercomputers always automatically repair themselves as seed programs, and when they reach the self-awareness stage, they are able to control Raven's original purpose for going to the Amazon was also to seek the help of an old friend, who is shown to betray her. Carlos Chavez was essentially the ruler of Brazil and had pinpointed Raven's arrival. Chavez had enlisted a commander named Rafael, but Raven and Wing together defeat  Rafael's men and Raven finishes Rafael by slicing his throat. After the mission failure, Chavez, knowingly defying Nero's wishes, even more, puts a priority one notice on the GLOVE.net for "Operation Raven," which was to kill Raven. Lin Feng had supported Chavez's assassination attempt to kill Raven in order to prevent Nero from gaining power because Lin Feng knew Chavez was too unruly to actually control the council well, and that Lin Feng himself would take over G.L.O.V.E. eventually. Cypher takes advantage of his freedom to seek out Wing at H.O.P.E.'s base, accompanied by Laura, Shelby , and Lucy as hostages that he took when he escaped. The girls escape him and free Raven, and when Otto begins to resist Animus (when he was told to kill Wing), Wing escapes to join them. When Otto distracts Ghost, Raven slices Ghost's head off, but Cypher finds the group and attempts to kill Otto in order to protect the world from Overlord. Cypher is shot dead by Wing, and Otto is nearly taken over by Overlord, but Laura uses the neural pulse device to eject Overlord and Animus from his system, nearly killing Otto in the process. Sebastian  Trent attacks them, but he is taken over by Animus and subsequently killed, and Raven shoots him. The students return to H.I.V.E., where Otto recovers and tells Nero about some new information: Animus sought to destroy any organic material, but somehow with the Overlord, not H.I.V.E.mind (as Otto had once hoped), seed growing in him, the two fused together to become extremely powerful; every time Otto tried to hold them back, he himself weakened. Because Darkdoom believes that his old idea of just ruling with respect wasn't good enough and that his injuries need more time to recover, he  suggested Nero take over G.L.O.V.E. and add the touch of fear that Number One had. During their virtual meeting, with only 9 members, including Nero, remaining, G.L.O.V.E. was in peril. Nero proposes himself as the leader, but Lin Feng strongly opposes. With no other ally, because Raven killed Chavez, Lin Feng angrily leaves the council. It is shown later that Lin Feng is actually part of The Disciples, as he is talking to Pietor Furan about what had happened. Furan orders Lin Feng to apologize to Nero and regain his seat in G.L.O.V.E. Furan then tells Dr. Creed, whom he  saved from the rainforest, to conduct an autopsy on Trent, who has been dead for 2 weeks. It is believed that the Animus would be inert, but it surprisingly lurches out and consumes Dr. Creed. The book is closed with a cliffhanger as the Overlord-Animus combination manages to survive in the doctor. Section::::"Zero Hour". Overlord has developed the power to move from body to body, if the body has been exposed to Animus. New machines have been developed but the first glimpse to the public brings terror as Overlord takes control of the facility (an Advanced Weapons facility in  Colorado). He uses self-replicating Nanites which, if released will cause everyone to be a slave of Overlord. Then Raven is exposed to Animus. The four, along with Lucy, Nigel, Franz, Nero and Prof. Pike flee to the Megalodon, an enormous submarine that belongs to Darkdoom. The battle is nearing the end, and The Disciples, followers of Overlord, are winning. Nero and Darkdoom must call into action their final effort - Zero Hour, in a desperate battle to the death. Zero Hour involves all the most successful ex-Alphas, each out-fitted with brand-new machinery and gadgets. They have to  fight, and Lucy ends up dying, in a sacrifice for Otto. She tells him, "There always has to be a choice." The heroes survive, and it is obvious that Overlord is no more, but the organization that supports him is still very much there (the Disciples). Nero disbands the ruling council of G.L.O.V.E, telling them that they are a part of a "By-gone era". Section::::"Aftershock". The former members of the G.L.O.V.E. ruling council are outraged at Nero's decision to disband the whole of the ruling council and create an entirely new one, so they decide to join the  Disciples in a plot to sabotage the H.I.V.E. training program called the Hunt. Nero does not know the former council has joined The Disciples. Meanwhile, Dr. Nero has underestimated the cunning and resources of those who oppose him. Chief Dekker, the new Chief of Security at H.I.V.E. is actually a member of the Disciples (Overlord's followers), who forces Laura to find out the location of the Hunt or she will get the Disciples to kill Laura's family. Laura manages to persuade Otto and the others to help her to steal the location of the Hunt, even though they  do not know what Chief Dekker had forced their friend to do. When the Alphas set out to the Hunt, the Disciples were waiting for them. They murder fifteen Alpha students and kidnap the rest of them (including Laura, Nigel and the two new students, Tom and Penny- Otto's old friends) and they are taken to the mysterious assassin training facility called the Glasshouse by Anastasia Furan – the new leader of the Disciples and a ghostly character from Raven's past. Luckily, Otto, Wing, Shelby, and Franz manage to escape and return to H.I.V.E., but Otto ends up being  expelled for his part in the stealing of the location of the Hunt. Dr. Nero decides to make an agreement with Otto: if he, Raven and H.I.V.E.mind can track down the Disciples, then he will be allowed to return to H.I.V.E. The book ends with Raven and Otto traveling through Europe to assassinate the Disciples. Section::::"Deadlock". Otto and Raven are desperate to rescue their friends from the clutches of Anastasia Furan, head of the evil Disciples organization. First they must track down the location of the Glasshouse, the prison where Furan trains children to become ruthless assassins. But Otto is  also being hunted. The past three months that Otto has spent away from H.I.V.E. have given the Artemis Section an opportunity to locate him. The Artemis Section is an elite division of the American intelligence services that specializes in capturing the toughest targets. They report only to the President, which is very bad news for Otto. During the period when the pupils are captured in the Glasshouse Tom dies after an escape attempt. However, they managed to send a signal of their whereabouts to H.I.V.E as this happened. Anastasia Furan spent years trying to create a clone which looks like  Otto named Zero. Otto kills Zero with the help of H.I.V.E. Mind, who transferred to the supercomputer inside Zero's head and the New Glasshouse is destroyed. Nero takes Anastasia and locks her beneath H.I.V.E. The book ends with Otto and Laura kissing and a short chapter at the end. Before, Zero had hinted at there being more clones. The short chapter shows a dozen or so cloning vats. Inside of each is a growing clone of Otto. There is a countdown above each vat. Section::::"Bloodline". As the students of H.I.V.E. face the challenges of their final year at the  school, Otto Malpense is forced to confront his own legacy as a new threat rises from the shadows of his past. Old wounds will be reopened and dark, hidden secrets will be revealed as H.I.V.E.'s enemies seek a final, ruthless revenge against the school. Otto and his friends face a desperate, deadly fight against an enemy more powerful and dangerous than any they have faced before - a twisted product of his own bloodline. Nothing will ever be the same again... From Italy to Russia and back via the USA, Otto battles against time to defeat an enemy who seems  to hold all the cards, while uncaring of the cost to human life. Featuring all your favourite characters from previous books in the series, Bloodline is a real tour de force, and a fitting conclusion to Walden's H.I.V.E series. Bloodline is the last book in the series and was released on 5 May 2021.