Nick Fury had noticeably lost some of his confidence.
Part of it was because Drex Valen now had leverage over him. The bigger reason was far simpler: Drex was far too powerful. Fury couldn't manipulate or outmaneuver someone like that. Under normal circumstances, he would have had plenty of ways to deal with an overbearing council director.
With Drex, none of those options seemed particularly wise.
The moment he arrived, Drex started criticizing everything in sight.
"Do any of you realize these two are walking gamma-radiation disasters?" he asked. "Why isn't this facility equipped with proper radiation containment? Are you trying to hand out cancer diagnoses?"
His words immediately made Hawkeye and Black Widow exchange glances before subtly stepping backward.
Now that they thought about it, the research reports had indeed mentioned that both Abomination and Dr. Banner were products of gamma radiation.
And radiation was the sort of thing that sounded terrifying no matter how much science you knew.
Neither of them felt particularly eager to stand nearby anymore.
Even Fury looked caught off guard.
He realized he had never seriously considered that problem.
Without wasting time, he immediately made several calls and ordered the emergency transfer of both Abomination and Dr. Banner to a specialized radiation-shielded facility.
By this point, Fury had the uncomfortable feeling that Drex was leading him around by the nose.
Drex, meanwhile, couldn't have cared less.
He quickly slipped back into his old habits, ordering SHIELD's scientists to assist him in extracting blood samples from both Banner and the permanently transformed Abomination.
"Director Valen, are you..." Fury began.
He already had a suspicion.
Was Drex planning to use the Hulk's blood to create biological weapons?
But General Ross had already proven that approach was a disaster. If it were possible, the military would have succeeded long ago instead of creating two uncontrollable monsters.
"Don't question a professional."
Drex picked up a container holding highly concentrated gamma-irradiated blood and turned toward Black Widow and Hawkeye.
"So, which of you wants to become one of these big guys? Bulletproof. Superhuman strength. Strong enough to crush an army without breaking a sweat."
"Can it actually work?" Fury asked immediately.
The last thing he wanted was another uncontrollable monster.
"Guaranteed," Drex replied. "And fully controllable. No getting trapped in monster form like Blonsky. No leaking deadly gamma radiation through your bodily fluids, either."
He painted a very attractive picture.
Nobody believed him.
Not yet.
At the very least, they wanted to see actual results.
Drex didn't bother arguing.
If this had been the old him, mass-producing Hulks might have been impossible.
Now things were different.
A different level of understanding naturally produced different results.
Even if he was technically still a mortal...
A Kryptonian mortal.
The first step was naturally Emil Blonsky.
Drex didn't waste time with speeches or persuasion. He simply scrambled the man's resistance, rewired his thinking, and thoroughly conditioned him.
The next day, Fury, Hawkeye, and Black Widow were stunned.
Walking behind Drex was a completely restored Emil Blonsky.
No scales.
No monstrous frame.
No Abomination.
Just a normal human being.
At least on the surface.
"Director Valen... what exactly happened here?" Fury asked after recovering from his shock.
"I studied him for a bit," Drex said casually, one hand in his pocket. "Then I reversed the transformation. He can switch forms whenever he wants now. He's also my bodyguard."
Fury automatically ignored that last part.
Bodyguard?
For Drex Valen?
The man who could casually overpower the Hulk?
That was like assigning a lifeboat to protect an aircraft carrier.
What mattered was the impossible achievement itself.
He had actually done it.
"Director Valen, the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division needs this technology."
Fury had personally confirmed the previous day that neither SHIELD nor the U.S. military possessed any method of restoring Blonsky to human form.
Every expert agreed the transformation was permanent.
Yet here he was.
Back to normal.
That alone was enough to prove Drex's genius.
"Too late," Drex replied. "Yesterday you ignored me. Today I'm out of your reach."
With that, he turned and walked away.
Blonsky followed closely behind.
Fury stood there speechless.
He possessed the shameless persistence common to elite spies, but Drex clearly wasn't someone who could be worn down through stubbornness.
Besides, Blonsky's presence made things awkward.
If Fury pushed too hard and somehow provoked him, getting ripped apart with his bare hands would be a very real possibility.
The thought held little appeal.
Drex's authority extended far beyond his position on the Security Council.
General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross paid the price for allowing the battle between the Hulk and Abomination to devastate public streets.
Instead of eventually becoming Secretary of State, his career took a very different turn.
He was reassigned directly under Drex's command.
On Ross's very first day, he found himself strapped to an experimental table.
His eyes widened as he spotted Blonsky standing nearby.
Wait.
Wasn't he supposed to be permanently transformed?
"What the hell is going on?" Ross demanded.
Drex smiled.
It was not a reassuring smile.
"Ross, you're about to get exactly what you've always wanted."
"What?"
"The power of the Hulk."
Ross immediately sensed danger.
A second later, Drex injected massive quantities of Hulk blood directly into his body.
The samples had been cultivated through cloning techniques, creating vast reserves of highly concentrated gamma-infused blood.
The effects were immediate.
The incompatible blood triggered catastrophic cellular destruction throughout Ross's body.
Combined with the gamma radiation, it felt like every nerve in his body was being torn apart.
Ross screamed.
The pain was beyond anything he had ever experienced.
Then came the next stage.
High-output gamma-ray exposure.
The military veteran's iron will held for only so long before the agony overwhelmed him.
Fortunately for him, Drex was there.
With precise intervention, he guided the transformation and forced Ross's body to evolve rather than die.
Moments later, a massive crimson giant emerged from the procedure.
Red Hulk.
His body immediately began absorbing gamma radiation.
Blazing heat rolled from his skin.
Superheated plasma flickered around him like living flames.
His temperature rapidly climbed toward one thousand degrees Celsius, hot enough to make survival impossible for ordinary life.
The newly transformed Ross instantly lost control.
Blonsky transformed as well.
Abomination and Red Hulk crashed into one another, tearing steel apart as they grappled like enraged titans.
Then Drex punched them.
Once.
The fight ended.
Both monsters collapsed.
When Ross finally regained his senses, he stared at his transformed body in stunned disbelief.
"You don't have much of a choice now," Drex said with obvious amusement. "You're one of us."
This was only the first move in his game.
His first step toward reshaping the Marvel Universe.
Ross glared at him.
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
He knew who Drex was.
The superhuman who had dominated the battlefield that night.
The newly appointed Security Council director who now controlled all affairs related to SHIELD.
Even Alexander Pierce had to cooperate with him or answer his questions.
Drex folded his arms.
"The Security Council, or more accurately the United Nations, has decided to create a specialized organization dedicated to handling supernatural phenomena and threats to humanity."
Ross listened carefully.
Drex continued.
"It will operate under my direct authority."
"And its name?"
"The Human Supernatural Strategic Defense, Attack, and Logistics Bureau."
Ross blinked.
"The Human Supernatural Strategic Defense, Attack, and Logistics Bureau?"
"That's right."
"Why is the name so ridiculously long?"