The bullets hit Drex Valen and ricocheted harmlessly away.
One of the return rounds spun back and punched straight through a robber's skull.
"Thunk."
Drex drove his fist into another gunman.
The impact was so absolute that the man died before he even finished reacting. His internal organs were crushed in an instant, his spine shattered into useless fragnts, and his body stopped obeying him before he hit the ground.
For a first public appearance as the Dark Knight, Drex decided he ought to avoid anything too grueso.
He had already studied enough footage from the underground KOF tournant to know how to kill fast and clean.
A blur of motion carried him behind two of the gunn.
He lifted two fingers and tapped the back of their heads near the cerebellum.
Both n imdiately collapsed, convulsing like puppets with their strings cut, their bodies trembling hard enough to look almost pathetic before they hit the pavent.
The surrounding civilians, who had been panicking a mont ago, began to calm down.
The police found their courage too, pushing out from cover to return fire.
By then, Drex had already cleared the rest of the robbers with ruthless efficiency.
"Excuse , who are you?"
The officers were unsure how to approach soone like this. They had never really dealt with a vigilante or a superhero before, and the armor itself looked far too advanced to be a normal War Machine.
"I'm Drex Valen," Drex said. "This is my War Machine, the Dark Knight. Good work, officers."
He revealed his identity, then opened the faceplate of the helt.
The handso face beneath it was instantly recognizable across the United States.
By now, Drex Valen was already considered one of the most attractive n in Arica.
A mont later, he took off into the sky.
The reporters from the Daily News and the Daily Bugle stared after him with open frustration, wishing they had been faster, wishing they had gotten the shot, wishing they had been the ones to capture the story instead of watching it vanish overhead.
Drex had staged the whole thing on purpose.
A public image mattered.
Urd had already followed his instructions and established a newspaper for him. Drex had given it the deliberately grandiose na Planet Daily, complete with the massive orbital logo, a stylized iron sphere frad like a planet.
If he managed his reputation properly, he would be standing on solid ground no matter what happened next.
Just as importantly, he wanted his enemies to believe his strength ca entirely from the Dark Knight armor, from a machine powerful enough to fly and cut through anything.
That was useful too.
But the real goal was bigger than image control.
Drex wanted to start an era.
The age of superheroes.
As the owner's paper, Planet Daily naturally received the first high-resolution photos of the Dark Knight. The Black Queen had captured every angle perfectly, in a way no ordinary photographer ever could.
Beneath the sleek, close-fitting armor, Drex's powerful fra was visible in every contour.
Broad shoulders.
Dense muscle.
Explosive definition.
The suit looked less like a machine and more like a sculpture of force.
He made Michelangelo's David look underdressed.
Most won in Arica were instantly swept up by the image.
In an absurdly short ti, Drex Valen beca the man every teenage girl, glamorous older woman, and married housewife in the country secretly wanted to spend a night with.
That had basically already been true before.
But this was the first ti the public had seen him like this, armored, statuesque, and carrying the kind of cold, high-status beauty that made him look like he had stepped out of a different league entirely.
With his slicked-back blue-black hair and his faintly aloof expression, calling him the nation's ideal man was almost an understatent.
The headlines spread like wildfire.
The Dark Knight, the greatest genius in human history, Drex Valen!
He put on armor and beca a superhero!
Genius and hero: is Drex Valen also exposing the failures of Arica's security system?
The world needed a hero, and he stepped forward!
A complete analysis of the differences between the Dark Knight and other War Machines!
NYPD says New York is fine, Arica is fine, and we do not need a genius acting like a hero!
Planet Daily ran praise after praise, while the other outlets scrambled to keep up.
So followed the sa angle.
Others tried to criticize him for personal heroism, as though that were a bad thing in a country that practically worshipped the concept when it looked good enough on a movie poster.
But they had a problem.
They had no photos of the Dark Knight.
No visual hook.
No angle strong enough to compete.
Their sales were crushed.
Planet Daily dominated the market because the story had hit directly into the sweet spot of Arican fantasy.
Beco the hero.
Save the world.
Fight evil.
Restore justice.
Arica needed heroes.
Nick Fury and the other power players in the country were all getting headaches.
Why couldn't Drex just stay a scientist?
Why co out swinging as a superhero?
The Dark Knight armor was powerful, yes.
That was exactly the problem.
It was dangerous.
Drex Valen was still a young man who clearly liked the spotlight, and at this point he was proving to be more reckless than Tony Stark ever was.
At least Stark did not run around in a suit of steel trying to save the world.
That was supposed to be the police's job.
The military's job.
A move like this undermined the authority of both.
Nick Fury had no choice but to contact Natasha Romanoff.
"How is your assignnt going?"
Natasha had been buried under work when the ssage ca through.
For a second she almost forgot that her actual mission was to get close to Drex Valen and gather intelligence, not to function as his perfect executive assistant.
The problem was that Drex's mind worked like a storm.
He kept changing direction.
Everyone assud he would focus on cancer research next.
Instead, he suddenly bought up private hospitals.
That alone had been exhausting.
Natasha and Urd had run back and forth handling paperwork and logistics until they were nearly dead on their feet.
Then Drex decided he wanted to launch a news company.
Fine.
They managed that too.
Only for him to imdiately pivot again and order them to recruit IT talent because he wanted to build a platform like YouTube or Twitter.
At this point, Natasha's entire life had beco paperwork, phone calls, and constant movent with no ti to breathe.
"It's bad," she said with a tired exhale. "He has absolutely no interest in . Honestly, I'm probably less important to him than a machine part."
Fury frowned.
That did not make sense.
Natasha Romanoff usually had n wrapped around her finger.
If Drex was not interested in won and cared more about research, then what was Urd supposed to be?
The woman at his side was beautiful, sharply dressed, and very much not subtle.
"He might just not like my type," Natasha added. "You should probably send soone like Urd instead. A female agent with that kind of presence might work better."
She sounded exhausted more than offended.
Blade Tech Industries paid her better than any governnt job ever had.
Drex Valen also handed out raises whenever he felt like it, and if soone perford well, he increased their salary imdiately.
He was, by all practical standards, one of the most generous employers alive.
Still, the workload was brutal.
Natasha Romanoff was starting to feel it in her bones.
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