Drex had only gone to Otto because he wanted to test sothing.
If the output of that reactor could replace the sun, then his own growth would accelerate even faster.
That was the real goal.
In the underground training hall, inside the combat arena, Bronski was flung through the air like he weighed nothing.
The arena itself had been forged from secondary kryptonite.
Bronski had already transford into a super beast soldier, but Drex stood there with his eyes closed, expression unreadable, not making a single visible move.
And yet Bronski had been smashed aside anyway.
What looked like an impossible miracle was not speed.
It was Drex's newly awakened psionic power.
Even Drex still found it hard to believe how much the power amplified a Kryptonian. No other Kryptonian had awakened anything like it. Superman ca close in terms of ntal potential, but Drex felt the difference was still enormous.
His psionic force could draw in and absorb cosmic energy, then convert it into other abilities. Super speed. Super strength. Enhanced senses. Energy manipulation. Flight.
In the Marvel universe, cosmic energy was one of the highest forms of power, second only to the Phoenix Force. Most cosmic gods beca terrifyingly strong because they had absorbed cosmic energy or learned how to use it.
But that was not even the part that excited Drex the most.
The real surprise was that his psionic force had given him sothing close to instant movent.
Anywhere he could imagine, rember, had been to, or seen, he could reach in an instant.
The only difference was how much psionic energy the jump consud.
The force field, the crushing control, the absolute domination of Bronski was only one application of that power made tangible.
Drex's psionic reserves were vast, ocean-deep. If this were a mutant hierarchy, he might have been able to push past Professor X. It was less a gift than a buried treasury, and Drex was still learning how to open the vault.
He extended one hand.
Bronski's throat locked shut.
The super beast soldier was yanked off the ground, choking silently as invisible pressure crushed around his neck.
Drex tilted his head slightly.
"Doesn't seem that hard. Is it because the psionic force is just too enormous?"
He flicked Bronski aside.
Bronski hit the ground, furious, but he did not dare speak.
There was no point.
With the psionic wave watching him, one stray thought from Drex and Bronski's own head could be turned three hundred and sixty degrees without permission. There was no counterattack to be made. No resistance to even imagine.
"How's Bucky's situation?"
Drex asked in an even tone.
"They've successfully infiltrated Hydra," Bronski replied after getting back up. "But Bucky has been frozen. Apparently the Winter Soldier is only thawed when he's needed for a mission, and kept frozen otherwise, to maintain peak combat readiness."
Bronski snorted.
Hydra, the shadow hanging over the world, suddenly did not seem so impressive.
World Snake was the real monster.
Bronski was ambitious. Being a beast soldier officer was not enough for him anymore. He wanted sothing higher. A super beast soldier. Maybe even one of those beast generals Drex occasionally ntioned.
He did not know exactly what a beast general was, but the title alone sounded far above super beast soldier or even super soldier.
Replacing Drex was impossible. The psionic wave made Drex the unquestioned leader of World Snake.
But the second seat?
That could still be taken.
"Good. How many Hydra agents have you found so far?"
Drex's plan was simple.
Start with a small slice of Hydra. Brainwash them. Turn them into World Snake's nodes. Then slowly, step by step, eat away at North Arica's Hydra network.
By then, S.H.I.E.L.D. would be World Snake's.
"Twenty are already confird. We're preparing to move."
Bronski was not only the beast soldier instructor. He was also head of the action team.
That said, the structure of World Snake's departnts had not been finalized yet. Nobody knew how long that action team would even last.
Drex might decide it was annoying and scrap it tomorrow.
"Don't rush," Drex said. "Erase every trace. Go slowly. We have ti."
If this operation exposed World Snake, he would drop the organization without hesitation and build a new one.
After the sparring session ended, Dr. Connors ca looking for Drex through Black Queen, visibly excited.
"What's got you so worked up, Dr. Connors?"
Drex's voice stayed calm.
"Boss, there's been new progress with the vampire virus!" Connors said, practically vibrating with excitent. "It's incredible!"
So Drex went down to the bio lab.
There, Dr. Connors explained his discovery.
"The vampire virus is unlike anything we've ever seen. It can destroy every known virus that exists in the human body. It could genuinely be called the king of viruses. Boss, this is practically a miracle drug."
He demonstrated it right there.
Every cultured virus was wiped out by the vampire virus with ease, then the vampire virus rapidly completed its own infection and cellular conversion process.
What excited Connors most was the transmission chanism.
It was terrifyingly efficient.
It was almost impossible to imagine such an aggressive virus existing at all. It was like sothing born solely to kill and overpower other viruses, a natural predator designed for that one purpose.
If its chanism could be copied and the flaw that transford cells into vampires removed, it would beco humanity's salvation.
"Calm down, Dr. Connors," Drex said. "You haven't tested it against leukemia or cancer yet. Try it on a range of human diseases first and see how far it goes."
Drex had seen Kryptonian dical technology that was far more advanced, so he was not especially shocked. At this stage, it was only a theoretical miracle drug.
It had not even been finished yet.
And removing the transformation effect would probably be difficult. There was a good chance the virus's ability to annihilate other viruses was tied directly to its conversion chanism. Strip that away, and the virus-killer aspect might lose a lot of its power.
At that point, it would be a strong specialty dicine, not a universal cure.
Connors nodded, thinking it through.
That made sense.
If the vampire virus could do more than destroy viruses, then the implications were frightening.
Drex left Connors buried in his research and turned.
That was when Urd approached him.
After being rescued before, she had spent days tossing and turning at night. After years of being single and having never really dated, she still could not tell whether this was what falling in love felt like.
But Urd had the temperant of a decisive woman.
So she chose to take the initiative.
From the way Drex looked, he was probably the type who put all his attention into research and forgot there was a world outside the lab. To a man like that, won probably ranked below atomic equations.
If she did not act first, was she supposed to just sit around and wait for Drex to make a move?
Urd had opened her mouth, ready to ask him to dinner as a way of saying thanks.
Then Drex, without missing a beat, handed her sothing else to do.
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