Most of the superheroes still did not really understand why the Superhero Association was being folded into an official governnt organization.
And, honestly, Drex Valen could understand their hesitation.
Politicians and corporate elites had the worst reputation imaginable. Most heroes had spent enough ti seeing what those people did behind closed doors to develop a very simple instinctive response: distrust first, ask questions never.
Drex, however, did not care what any of them decided.
The "Global International Strategic Attack and Defense Logistics Special Operations Bureau" was just a title.
A very useful title.
It gave World Serpent a legal mask, a clean public face, and access to privileges that had previously been impossible. If every hero in the bureau walked away tomorrow, Drex could recruit another batch by sunrise.
Tony Stark and the others understood exactly how much the bureau could benefit superheroes, which was why they helped persuade the others to stay.
Still, a few heroes decided the road ahead simply was not theirs.
Different ideals. Different paths.
Drex had no objection.
And so, in the end, Drex Valen beca the director of the new bureau.
The na, however, was a mouthful.
He glanced at it once, frowned, and changed it.
From that day on, the Global International Strategic Attack and Defense Logistics Special Operations Bureau beca the Sword Bureau.
Not to be confused with the later space-based S.W.O.R.D. Fury would eventually establish.
Its headquarters was set on a battleship stationed at sea.
In concept, it was similar to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Helicarrier.
In reality, the comparison ended there.
Its firepower and defensive systems were on an entirely different level.
As a side effect, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Insight Project was also torn apart by the bureau's sudden appearance.
Nick Fury's face, according to the reports, had beco so dark it was impossible to ignore.
Alexander Pierce was equally irritated.
Hydra had spent years burying itself inside S.H.I.E.L.D. until the agency was half snake already. They had not even enjoyed the arrangent for long before this new monster of an organization appeared and shoved them off balance.
Worse, the Sword Bureau had authority above S.H.I.E.L.D.
The original plan had been simple: dissolve S.H.I.E.L.D. and move most of its agents into the new bureau.
Drex refused.
He would choose the personnel himself.
That left Pierce with only one option.
Infiltrate the Sword Bureau the sa way they had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D.
Unfortunately for Hydra, Drex's organization was not nearly so easy to penetrate.
Doctor Zola tried to hack into the Sword Bureau's database and got himself killed for his trouble. He barely managed to escape with his core data intact.
Even then, the bureau traced him.
If his main body had not been moved imdiately, Zola would have already been in the bureau's custody.
The difference between S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Sword Bureau was brutal.
Sword Bureau field agents were superheroes.
They did not need to seize territory outright to make a difference, but against the scraps of manpower and weaponry Hydra had left in its bases, they were more than enough.
Sowhere deep inside the Sword Bureau headquarters, Drex Valen sat in his director's office and looked at Natasha Romanoff.
"Agent Romanoff," he said, "we et again."
This Black Widow did not resemble Scarlett Johansson as closely as the versions people would have expected from films. She was sharper, more striking, and in Drex's opinion, even more dangerous to look at.
Natasha studied him carefully.
"Director Valen," she asked, "why did you agree to let into the Global International Strategic Attack and Defense Logistics Special Operations Bureau?"
It was a fair question.
Many of her forr colleagues, including Hawkeye, had already retired after failing to secure a place in Sword Bureau.
Drex was quiet for a mont.
He could have told her the obvious truth: that in the original lineup, she was one of the few people who could actually carry that kind of burden.
Raw power could be enhanced with X-gene modifications.
Character could not.
When the organization was filled with grown n who needed one woman's conscience to keep the whole thing from collapsing, the structure itself had a problem.
Drex had no intention of building sothing that depended on a morality ergency every ti things got ugly.
By contrast, Fury was useful.
He did not have Batman's abilities, but he carried Batman's paranoia around in his head, and that made him valuable in a different way.
So Drex had kept him too.
Even if Fury beca suspicious, he would not be able to do much about it.
The oversight division had already been filled with Drex's own people from day one.
On his first day as acting executive deputy director, Nick Fury had walked straight into Drex's office demanding access to the superhero database.
Drex had refused.
The superhero identity records existed only in Drex's head.
That was not a mistake.
It was a safeguard.
Fury might be reliable most of the ti, but when he made a bad call, he made a catastrophically bad one. Sothing as sensitive as superhero identities could not be left in his hands.
Besides, almost all the major heroes wanted to keep their true identities hidden.
The nations funding Sword Bureau wanted that information, of course, but Drex's secrecy asures made the entire thing impossible to pry apart.
He had simply morized everything himself.
Unless Reed Richards managed to dig through Drex's mind, nobody was getting those files.
That secrecy also made World Serpent's infiltration possible.
There was no need to register real nas.
Only bureau personnel data had to be recorded.
Under that system, Drex could slot in a World Serpent operative and present him as a legitimate Sword Bureau agent.
At that point, even Red Skull could probably pass through the front door on paper.
The governnts involved would be forced to rely on their own intelligence networks to uncover the real identities of the heroes.
Unfortunately for them, most of those heroes were rootless by design.
They were never going to find most of them.
Natasha frowned slightly.
"Director?"
Drex gave her a asured look. "You're capable. If I didn't take you in, what would you do instead? Retire to a farm and spend the rest of your life pretending you can settle down?"
Natasha blinked.
Then she smiled, a small amused curve of the mouth.
"Director," she said lightly, "ntioning a woman's real age without permission is terribly rude."
She stepped closer, studying him with open interest.
Drex Valen was talented.
Dangerous.
Powerful.
A man with real authority, not the kind that ca from inherited money or a pretty title.
Natasha had known impressive n before. Brilliant n. Handso n. Rich n who thought wealth was the sa thing as gravity.
None of them compared to the man sitting in front of her now.
His answer had also hit close to ho.
She really could not adapt to a quiet life.
She complained to Fury about the lack of vacations and the miserable pay, but that had never been the real point.
For Natasha, the work was penance.
Every mission, every threat, every ugly thing she survived was part of a slow and unfinished attempt to redeem herself.
She did not know how long that redemption would take.
She only knew that, if possible, she would keep walking that road.
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