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"They come from another world. They're called the Shrike. Primal, simple beings. They jump to a new world and infect a host. If the host gets taken out, they go berserk in search of a new one."
Sarge[src]

The Shrike were a race of parasitic creatures created by Izel that have been responsible for the destruction of multiple planets. The entire race perished quickly after Izel's death.

History[]

Galactic Plague[]

"In recent years, there were whispers of strange phenomena on distant planets, entire worlds mysteriously destroyed. We never imagined it would happen to ours."
Atarah[src]
Sarge and Jaco on Chronyca-2

The Shrike obliterate Chronyca-2

The Shrike were parasitic creatures created by Izel, an uncorporeal entity from the Fear Dimension who had managed to take up a physical body. Izel sent her Shrike across the galaxy in her search for the Di'Allas, three monoliths which she wanted to use to open a portal to her world so her kind could acquire physical vessels as well.[2] The Shrike infested many planets in the galaxy, infecting hosts and using their energy before jumping to another host. Eventually, the Shrike, when in sufficient number, drained the energy of the entire planet, causing its annihilation. Notably, the destructions of Jaco's home planet[3] as well as Chronyca-2 were caused by the Shrike.

Throughout this galactic infestation, the Shrike and their hosts were hunted down by Sarge's Squad, who sought to put an end to Izel's actions. Equipped with several useful items such as the Shrike Daggers and the Shrike Repeller, Sarge and his teammates were able to destroy numerous Shrike, but ultimately regularly failed to save the planets the Shrike had infested.[4]

Invasion of Earth[]

First Hosts[]

"We've seen what these birds do with human energy."
"Now, if the creature had made it to a convergence point and initiated the same process, the result would be..."
"Catastrophic."
Yo-Yo Rodriguez, Marcus Benson and Alphonso Mackenzie[src]

A group of Shrike arrived on Earth through a portal in Castleton, Indiana, and started infecting humans.[5] One of the infected people was Harold Simcoe, who was found by Sarge's Squad and killed with a Shrike Dagger. However, the Shrike was not completely dead, as the species take a few hours to die. Simcoe's corpse was retrieved by S.H.I.E.L.D. and brought to the Lighthouse, where Doctor Marcus Benson performed an autopsy on it and took the blade out.

Kellerswallowsalienbird

A Shrike infects Damon Keller

After a few minutes, the Shrike began moving and flying, searching desperately for a new host. It broke into the ventilation system and flew around the Lighthouse. Agents Yo-Yo Rodriguez, Damon Keller, and Diaz went searching for the Shrike, but it caught them by surprise and went into Keller. Rodriguez brought the agent to Benson, hoping that the latter could save him.

However, the Shrike defended itself by creating a crystal-like substance which expanded very fast, tearing Keller's body apart. Fortunately, Rodriguez was able to use her speed in order to stop the Shrike with the blade that it was impaled earlier, preventing more damage from being done.[1] The Shrike died after a few hours and Benson studied it further, eventually finding out that the Shrike's internal structure resembled that of the Monoliths.

In the meantime, Melinda May, who had been captured by Sarge, was put into the same room than a Shrike host who was executed by Sarge. May then watched as the Shrike controlled the dead body and attempted to leave it so it could infect May. May gave the Shrike a fierce fight, causing the Shrike to manifest the mineral protrusions. Sensing the danger, May stabbed the host with a Shrike Dagger left by Sarge, thus killing the Shrike.[4]

Using the Shrike tracking device recovered from Sarge after he was captured by May, Deke Shaw was able to find two other Shrike hosts in Iowa. Both May and Yo-Yo Rodriguez respectively went to Fort Dodge and Des Moines to capture them, but as soon as they were put in the Zephyr One's Containment Module, the Shrike overloaded their hosts, and the crystalline spikes eventually burst out of the pod. Thanks to Sarge's advice, S.H.I.E.L.D. was able to stop the outburst by opening the plane's ramp, thus exposing the Shrike to a cold they could not resist, allowing them to be killed.[3]

The Shrike Tower[]

AoS608 Shrike Tower Full Version

The Shrike build a tower

"That's why I was killing the Shrike. To keep them from making that tower. If we don't destroy it before the monster arrives, it'll grow ten times that size. Then it's too late."
Sarge[src]

Despite the combined efforts of Sarge's Squad and S.H.I.E.L.D., the Shrike infected more hosts, and were eventually enough to build a Shrike Tower which would be a beacon for Izel as she was approaching Earth. Many hosts thus gathered in a desert area at a Ley lines convergence point, and the Shrike began to tear them apart from the inside, manifesting the mineral spike protrusions which combined to form a tower. The construction of the tower was witnessed from afar by Sarge, Melinda May and Daisy Johnson in Sarge's Truck.

Initially, Sarge's plan consisting in leaving the truck in autopilot to smash the base of the tower, with the impact detonating an Atom Bomb which would exterminate all the Shrike created by the tower.[6] However, this plan was rejected by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and as the truck destroyed the tower, Johnson used her superhuman abilities to protect the bomb from the shock, thus keeping it from detonating. As a result, upon its destruction, the tower released an immense swarm of Shrike which assaulted the truck.

Quake v Shrike

A swarm of Shrike is destroyed by Quake

Repelling them with Shrike Daggers, the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents soon realized that there were too many Shrike for them to fight, as one of them nearly infected Deke Shaw. Eventually, Johnson unleashed her powers in a choke point she had created in the truck to exterminate all the Shrike released by the tower.

Meanwhile, Izel had turned the members of her crew in the Lazy Comet, except Leo Fitz and Jemma Simmons, into new Shrike hosts using freshly nurtured Shrike. Realizing that the Shrike Tower had been attacked, Izel turned on Fitz and Simmons, who later received backup from Alphonso Mackenzie, Yo-Yo Rodriguez, James Davis and Jaco. Together, they were able to hold off the Shrike hosts long enough for them to use a Spray Paint Transporter and escape the Lazy Comet. Jaco then reclaimed the Atom Bomb Sarge wanted to use on Earth and took it back into the Lazy Comet, where it detonated, killing the Shrike hosts.[7]

Final Outburst[]

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D

Izel unleashing her entire army of the Shrike

"Humans will fight back. Always do."
"The Shrike have hollowed them out. There's no fight left."
Melinda May and Izel[src]

Despite many of the Shrike having fallen to Sarge's Squad and S.H.I.E.L.D., there were still many of them who had been created by Izel. Having arrived at the Temple of the Forgotten, Izen sent an army of Shrike to a nearby resort town so they would infect all its residents and turn them into hosts. Once the Shrike took control over the population, all the Shrike hosts began converging to the Temple of the Forgotten, with some of them encountering Sarge, Daisy Johnson and Melinda May, who managed to take some down using bullets made out of melted Shrike Daggers.

YoYoAttackedByShrike

A Shrike attacks and infects Yo-Yo Rodriguez

There were, however, far too many Shrike to be dealt with by Sarge and S.H.I.E.L.D. Some Shrike surrounded the Quinjet where Deke Shaw had been directed to after he transported himself near the Temple with a ShawDrive, while many others invaded the Zephyr One where Johnson had retreated to with Alphonso Mackenzie and Yo-Yo Rodriguez.[8] While Shaw was able to escape from the Shrike by taking off the Quinjet, Johnson and Rodriguez did their best to hold the Shrike off. However, despite their combined powers, one of the Shrike beat Rodriguez's speed and infected her.

The Shrike continued to attack the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents as they had managed to reach the Temple of the Forgotten. Many of them faced and were taken down by Shaw, but their sheer number kept threatening the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Eventually though, all the Shrike were killed at once when May stabbed their creator Izel with Sarge's Sword, which instantly caused all the Shrike to perish as well. The Shrike inside Rodriguez also died seconds before it could manifest the crystal spikes and tear her apart. As a result, Rodriguez, who spat the remnants of the Shrike in the form of a black fluid, became the only known person to survive being infected by a Shrike.[9]

Characteristic Traits[]

Keller-DeathScene

The Shrike bursts out in the form of crystals

"The blood panel on our friend Mr. Simcoe yielded some surprising results. His body is flooded with a neurotoxin, possibly secreted by that alien critter."
Marcus Benson[src]

The Shrike are a race of parasitic avian creatures that were created and controlled by Izel. They possess physical characteristics of birds and bats in the form of beak-like mouthparts and leathery wings. When entering a host, thin tendrils spread out from the Shrike to attach to the host's body.

When inside a host, the Shrike attach themselves to the host's nervous system. Their blood, which acts as an accelerant, causes the victim's body temperature to drastically rise to the point of burning. Once the host dies, the Shrike can fully control their bodies, causing them to act as puppets. When threatened, Shrikes can produce a massive and progressively growing crystal-like substance, which is strong enough to tear through human flesh, as well as a S.H.I.E.L.D Containment Module. In this state, the Shrike converts the host's energy into pure destructive energy for detonation. If multiple hosts were to come together, they will react by simultaneously priming their bodies for detonation. The Shrike have a weakness to the cold; the mineral-like protrusions become brittle and disintegrate instantaneously. It has been noted that the mineral substance that the Shrike produce contains similar composition to the Monoliths, and seem to react to the presence of the Monoliths' energy.

Hosts parasitized by the Shrike are compelled by instinct to converge at a planet's Ley Lines. With the parasitized hosts gathered en masse, they will simultaneously sprout the crystalline protrusions and form a massive tower using energy taken from the planet's Ley Lines. The tower acts as a beacon to herald the arrival of their creator. Eventually, the tower will burst open, resulting in the creation of a Shrike swarm that will then proceed to consume everything.

Relationships[]

Allies[]

Enemies[]

Appearances[]

Appearances for the Shrike

In chronological order:

Trivia[]

  • The Shrike are named after a species of small, carnivorous birds, some of them being known to impale their prey on spikes and thorns, reminiscing the crystal spikes manifested out of their hosts by the Shrike.

References[]

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