H.I.V.E.

"Merely a drone. A piece of a larger entity. We exist as one organism. As you might say, a hive."

- Mina Fayad to Floyd Lawton

H.I.V.E. is a mysterious organization led by Damien Darhk. They carry out the ways of the League of Assassins but through the personal agenda of Damien. Their current goal is an operation known as "Genesis".

Founding
After escaping from Ra's al Ghul when he failed to become the leader of the League of Assassins, Damien Darhk founded H.I.V.E. with a group of his most loyal followers.

Early plans
After Floyd Lawton was incarcerated for threatening the lives of his family, Mina Fayad from H.I.V.E. approached him, convincing him a normal life was not possible for him anymore she offered him money to kill Andrew Diggle.

One of the organization's heads, Milo Armitage, attempted to obtain Malcolm Merlyn's earthquake device, as well as a nerve agent from Gholem Qadir after the organization granted him safe passage to Markovia. Armitage also hired Mark Shaw to steal classified A.R.G.U.S. files, but all of these attempts resulted in failure.

In 2015, Darhk visited Starling City. He was tracked down by Ra's al Ghul, but both Oliver Queen and he were too late to find Damien, who instead left behind his assistant, who was killed by Ra's.

Attacks on Star City
Many H.I.V.E. soldiers began attacking Star City, being nicknamed the Ghosts for the way they quickly executed their plans then disappeared. Damien later threatened the city leaders and had many of them killed. During a meeting, Damien killed one of his men, Alvarez, but Team Arrow broke up the meeting. Team Arrow later stopped H.I.V.E.'s attempt to blow up Star City's central train station.

H.I.V.E. later hired Lonnie Machin to stop Jessica Danforth from running for mayor of Star City, but once Damien decided Machin had gone too far by kidnapping her daughter, he terminated their partnership.

H.I.V.E agent Mina Fayad later came to Star City in order to take care of the Green Arrow under orders from Darhk's partners within H.I.V.E. She hired Jeremy Tell to kill him, though he was unsuccessful, resulting in her own death in order to teach Tell a lesson.

Damien sent Quentin Lance on a mission to erase the names of people whose deaths H.I.V.E. had faked before recruiting them into their organization. However, Damien wasn't aware that Lance was secretly working for Team Arrow. Still, he went through with the operation, but managed to get Damien to tell him about Andy Diggle, one of the men on the list of names.

Team Arrow soon learned that H.I.V.E. had been holding Ray Palmer captive after intercepting his distress call to Felicity in order to use his technology for their plans, even threatening to harm Felicity if he didn't cooperate. Quentin met with Darhk to request magic to help Sara after her recovery with a frustrated Darhk saying that he would help but that it was the last time he would ever summon him, beginning to grow suspicious of him. Quentin gave the directions of H.I.V.E.'s base to Team Arrow, who had John Diggle capture Oliver in disguise as a "Ghost". Diggle brought Oliver to Damien and they fought while the rest of the team fought the Ghosts guarding Ray. Team Arrow managed to successfully rescue Ray, although Oliver barely managed to escape being strangled to death by chains under control from Darhk's telekinesis.

H.I.V.E. soon took a more active interest in Oliver Queen's mayoral campaign when he announced his plan to restore the Star City Bay area, which was a key area of their Genesis project. At a police black-tie function, Darhk approached Queen and offered his financial and PR backing in exchange for Queen scrapping his Bay restoration project but Queen politely rebuffed him. The following evening Darhk met with Quentin to question him about his supposed disloyalty, which Darhk expressly warned him against. In the meantime, the Green Arrow and his team continued to plague H.I.V.E.'s operations in Star City culminating in a surgical strike against the HQ of the Ghosts by the Green Arrow and his team in an effort to rescue Andrew Diggle, who the team had found out was alive. The Ghosts fought Team Arrow but were overpowered and the team escaped with Diggle.

H.I.V.E. later raided an A.R.G.U.S. facility to steal a chemical bomb, only to be confronted by Team Arrow, who disarmed the Ghosts of their guns with a magnetic arrow. The Ghosts fought the team but before an outcome could be revealed, The Flash whisked the Team away to deal with problems in Central City.

Attacking Oliver Queen
Damien's partners soon arrived in Star City and this caused Damien to grow anxious to stop Oliver Queen's interference. During one of Queen's campaign clean-ups of Star City bay, H.I.V.E. sent a drone to attack the bay. However, due to this, Oliver revealed that Damien was the leader of H.I.V.E. to the press, much to the annoyance of his partners. In an act of revenge Darhk personally led a squad of Ghosts to attack Oliver's Holiday Party, and took John Diggle, Felicity Smoak, and Thea Queen. Oliver attempted to trade himself for his friends, but once he surrendered and went to their base, Damien attempted to kill them anyways as a demonstration for his partners and to take away Oliver's resolve. However, Laurel Lance and Malcolm Merlyn interfered and saved Oliver's compatriots. Darhk immediately left the scene, sending his partners to a safe location, and fought with Merlyn while the rest of Team Arrow fought Darhk's Ghosts, resulting in Damien's near death when Merlyn blew up their hideout. Darhk, who escaped death, later showed his associates an underground cornfield, and told them the air in it was pure and breathable thanks to the algae he collected and engineered from Star City Bay. He then told the agents it was time for them to begin Phase Four of their plan, and sent Ghosts to kill Queen. They attacked Oliver's limousine, firing upon him and Felicity and leaving Oliver injured and Felicity unresponsive.

Overview
In contrary to the more traditional ways of the League of Assassins, H.I.V.E. uses high-tech technology and modern military tactics to get the job done. Their members use modern weaponry and high-tech equipment. Their operators wear bulletproof vests and use advanced firearms and grenades. They are highly trained and able to overwhelm both the police force and Team Arrow. Their members are highly devoted to their leader and instantly commit suicide when in risk of being captured.

Also unlike the League of Assassins, H.I.V.E. have a moral code, as there some lines they do not cross like kidnapping innocent children.

Current members

 * Damien Darhk (founder and leader)
 * Milo Armitage (partner)
 * Nixon (partner)
 * Slater
 * Andy Diggle (incarcerated)

Former members

 * Damien Darhk's assistant (deceased)
 * Alvarez (deceased)
 * Mina Fayad (deceased)
 * Quentin Lance (secretly double agent for Oliver Queen)

Former allies

 * Floyd Lawton (deceased)
 * Mark Shaw (incarcerated)
 * Gholem Qadir (deceased)
 * Lonnie Machin
 * Jeremy Tell (incarcerated)

Behind the scenes

 * In the DC comics, H.I.V.E. stands for the Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination, led by Queen Bee. The H.I.V.E. organization appears mainly in comic books featuring the Teen Titans, having orchestrated several of the team's greatest threats, most notably Deathstroke and Ravager, the son of Slade Wilson.
 * In some versions, notably the Teen Titans cartoon version, H.I.V.E. is led by Brother Blood; they also frequently contract Deathstroke for work, and in the aforementioned Titans cartoon were contracted by Slade Wilson.
 * Mina Fayad, when giving Floyd Lawton his job, told him she was just a drone, a piece of one larger being. This is a reference to how scientists consider bees to be part of a hive and prioritize their hive over their lives. As such, the bees are considered part of a superorganism known as their hive.