S.W.O.R.D.

The next few months were perhaps the busiest Michael Passo had experienced since crossing over.

For most of that time, Michael had been busy wearing his armor and traveling back and forth across the world through one magic circle after another. Sometimes his schedule was so packed that he did not even have time to stop and recharge the armor. In those cases, he had to return to his laboratory first, change into an older model of suit, and then set out again.

His assignments were not particularly difficult when put that way. They mostly involved blasting apart a few bases, tearing off a few roofs, displaying some superhuman power to intimidate certain uncooperative Hydra remnants, and persuading them to "voluntarily" undergo modification and obey the new boss's command.

Most such work was actually handled by people like Rick Belloc—new Hydra underlings Michael had recently taken in—who led teams to deal with it. The ones Michael handled personally were all particularly tough nuts to crack. Some surviving Hydra units still possessed firepower comparable to regular armies, or held certain high-risk technologies. At times like that, Michael would step in himself, because it had to be said that when he wore that pitch-black armor and spoke through the speaker in that low, strange voice, his offers of surrender were indeed quite "persuasive."

After six months of uninterrupted effort, Michael had successfully absorbed most of Hydra's remaining forces. By now, most of them had accepted the fact that the organization had a new leader, and they clearly understood that this new leader was no less dangerous than their former masters. Yet interestingly, not one of them had truly seen this new leader—or rather, at least not the face beneath that black armor.

Michael had said he would rebuild a better organization atop Hydra's ruins, but when he said that, he had never naively imagined he could change the beliefs and convictions of its members. He knew exactly what kind of people he had gathered—swindlers, killers, terrorists. Human lives meant less than grass to them; they could slaughter an entire city without batting an eye. Trying to reform them would be harder than drilling through ice to make fire.

This new organization was like a sword—sharp and fierce, but also exceedingly dangerous. Yet a sword was still only a sword. It could wound people, or save them; whether it was good or evil depended entirely on the one wielding it.

That was why Michael had renamed it "S.W.O.R.D."

S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), originally an organization in Marvel comics established to monitor alien invasions and resolve interstellar disputes, was rather similar in nature to S.H.I.E.L.D.

In any case, this world did not seem to have had a S.W.O.R.D. to begin with, so for the sake of convenience, he simply borrowed the name.

Hydra could not be eradicated completely, but that did not mean it could not be controlled. Furthermore, this world was approaching a crucial new era. The number of superheroes and supervillains had increased exponentially in recent years, and the existence of aliens had also been confirmed. Under such circumstances, an organization capable of monitoring and managing supernatural phenomena across the globe and swiftly investigating potential security threats was undoubtedly necessary.

Of course, up to now, these had all fallen within S.H.I.E.L.D.'s responsibilities. But as everyone knew, S.H.I.E.L.D. had now fallen apart as well. Although Agent Phil Coulson was working hard to gather people and rebuild the organization, their resources and capabilities were far inferior to what they had once been. Not to mention that the international community had even classified them as terrorists by now.

This was also one of Michael's reasons for establishing "S.W.O.R.D."—to monitor dangers and prevent hidden threats. He needed to ensure that potential threats everywhere in the world remained under control, to eliminate them before they could take shape whenever possible, and at least prepare in advance for those that could not be avoided.

Hydra's resources were undoubtedly well suited to this task. Among the Hydra-related people Michael had successfully absorbed so far were numerous bankers, scientists, crime bosses, high-ranking politicians, and senior military officers. They were scattered across various countries and fields, with access to intelligence on all sorts of highly classified projects. These people would become S.W.O.R.D.'s eyes and ears, helping it keep track of developments across every aspect of this planet.

Beyond these eyes and ears, technological surveillance was equally important, and that part was primarily Sherry's task.

As had been mentioned before, Michael had uncovered a backdoor in Hydra's network long ago. He had then created the first artificial intelligence of his life and rooted it within Hydra's network. Over the years, this program had steadily delved deeper into the vast world of data belonging to Hydra. By now, it had nearly taken control of every aspect of Hydra's entire network. And now, it had completely merged into a part of Sherry, which meant Sherry possessed full autonomous access to Hydra's network.

Hydra had once liked to boast that it was everywhere. Now, Michael believed that this fledgling S.W.O.R.D. already possessed the beginnings of the same foundation.

After six months of personally overseeing the work, the enormous machine known as "S.W.O.R.D.," hidden in the shadows, had finally begun to get on track. Every component was in place, every gear was performing its role, and all functions were online and operating smoothly.

S.W.O.R.D. could now monitor all manner of anomalies and superpowered activity around the world, but the next problem lay in responding to them. Many cases involving extraordinary abilities had already exceeded what ordinary troops and conventional weapons could handle, and Michael could not personally appear at every scene to resolve every crisis.

That was why S.W.O.R.D. also needed an elite team capable enough to handle any issue involving supernatural phenomena. In Michael's vision, this team would exist entirely outside the normal chain of command, with a high degree of autonomy. They would not need to report to officers at any level of the organization, answering only directly to the director—in other words, Michael himself. Like a precise, sharp scalpel, they would be able to cleanly remove every unconventional threat.

Of course, that was the plan for the next stage. At present, the team had only three candidate members: Sergeant Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier freed from Hydra's brainwashing; Wanda Maximoff, suspected of gaining the ability to wield Chaos Magic through Baron Strucker's experiments, codenamed Scarlet Witch; and Pietro Maximoff, Wanda's older brother, who had gained super speed in the same manner, codenamed Quicksilver.

With a swipe of his finger, Michael shut off the projected candidate list floating above his desk. He drew a deep breath and rubbed his temples.

Perhaps the team had only three candidates for now, but not for much longer. Soon, more exceptionally capable people would emerge one after another. They would form an unstoppable team and become the sharpest blade of S.W.O.R.D.