After Jessica Campbell achieved A-rank status, she celebrated with her friends. Wanda watched her with envy, wishing she could breeze through life with talent and ease. Yet, Wanda had to stick with her management studies, while Emma appeared indifferent to Jessica's success. Emma, already close to Zod's inner circle, enjoyed special privileges thanks to her telepathic abilities.
Emma's telepathy quickly made her one of the most popular students. People marveled at how well she understood them—sometimes better than they knew themselves, including their hidden secrets and quirks. Jessica and Wanda were no exception; their thoughts were completely open to Emma. She could sense Jessica's initial guardedness and Wanda's genuine warmth.
Emma found this new school life refreshing. She was surrounded by friends, adored by teachers, and excelling academically, partly due to her telepathy. She quickly cultivated a "goddess" image, both intelligent and kind. However, Zod cautioned her against abusing her powers to pry into people's minds. He only used telepathy when absolutely necessary. Emma nodded along but continued her subtle surveillance, confident Zod couldn't detect it.
She was even less concerned about another telepath, Esdeath, who was rumored to be frequently absent. Little did Emma know, Zod had plans to create a telepathic overseer who, in cooperation with the Black Queen, would monitor the nation's mental landscape as part of his "world snake" network.
"By the way, Emma, aren't you from Boston? Are your folks okay after that recent attack?" Wanda asked.
Emma replied with a reassuring smile, "They evacuated in time. They're safe." As a high-ranking member of the World Snake, her family had been relocated well before the disaster. Despite her indifference toward her abusive father and neglectful mother, Emma did care about her half-sister, Cara, who had also been safely evacuated.
Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. faced mounting pressure, especially for Nick Fury. Strange threats kept surfacing faster than S.H.I.E.L.D. could respond, while the Superhero Association continually outpaced them in identifying and neutralizing these threats. In the Boston incident alone, the Association minimized losses despite the Asura Unicorn's citywide rampage, saving billions in potential damage by stopping it in under a day.
This prompt response earned the Association international attention. Governments worldwide recognized that conventional weapons couldn't contain these bizarre threats, and stronger arms weren't feasible in urban areas. Zod's strategy was to relocate battles to city peripheries, evacuate civilians, and turn the ensuing clash into a spectacle, broadcast by sentry robots. It showcased government ineffectiveness and the heroism of his superheroes.
Capitalizing on this, Zod planned to groom charismatic superheroes to enhance public appeal. The rise of superheroes starkly highlighted S.H.I.E.L.D.'s growing irrelevance. Despite Nick Fury's objections, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s budget faced heavy cuts. Alexander Pierce of Hydra saw superheroes as the successors to past super-soldier initiatives, including the Winter Legion. Figures like the Hulk, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four could each rival an armed division, and Pierce envied Zod's control over them.
Hydra, desperate to harness this power, embedded agents within the Superhero Association. But with Emma and the Black Queen's oversight, these "agents" were swiftly absorbed into the World Snake, feeding false intelligence to Hydra while aiding Zod in dismantling Hydra from within. Pierce, oblivious, continued dreaming of controlling superhero power, unaware his Hydra network was crumbling.
Governments worldwide also began to recruit superheroes, leading to significant setbacks for the arms industry. Meanwhile, Zod's ventures in superhero resources became immensely profitable. Despite constant investment offers from wealthy capitalists, he turned them all away, refusing to share control. His public rationale was that he wanted to protect superheroes from exploitation by corporations and governments. Many heroes, often distrustful of authority figures, supported him wholeheartedly, as they shared a deep mistrust of both American capitalists and officials due to their questionable histories.