WARNING: The following contains spoilers for S.W.O.R.D. #2 by Al Ewing, Valerio Schiti, Marte Gracia, VC's Ariana Maher and Tom Muller, on sale now.
Earth has been all but completely consumed by Knull, the dark god of the symbiotes. While the grasp of Marvel's King in Black closes around the planet as a whole, all that the mutants aboard the space station that is now home to S.W.O.R.D. can do is watch.
Unfortunately, they too find themselves under attack, not just as a team, but as a race. Mutantkind is all but doomed if the world is lost. Luckily, Abigail Brand has more than just herself and her direct allies to rely on, she's also got a helping hand that money could literally not buy.
As the world falls apart beneath her, Abigail Brand gets all of her eyes on the situation to gather as much information as possible. Unfortunately, one of those sets of eyes under her purview rests in the head of Mentallo, a powerful telepath to be sure, but also a righteous pain in her ass. Unlike the rest of the mutants aboard the Peak, Mentallo is there not out of any sense of duty or pride, but because the paycheck is good. Exorbitant fees might seem like an issue for a fledgling organization working alongside an infant nation without so much as a proper flag, but S.W.O.R.D. has friends in high places who are more than willing to foot the bill.
In her notes, Abigail remarks that Mentallo's greed is costly, but worth every penny, especially under the current circumstances. It helps that Nick Fury was gracious enough to give her access to his black-budget account, which may as well be a never-ending money pit. Despite the two not initially getting along during Brand's time at S.W.O.R.D. while it was still a subsection of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury knew that he could count on her to be loyal, as did everyone else in the organization. The two grew closer as time went on, developing mutual respect for one another's devotion to the cause and strong moral compass, so it only makes sense that her longtime pseudo mentor would give Brand a leg up when it came to reforming and running S.W.O.R.D. on her own. It certainly goes a long way toward covering the enormous costs of running a space-based global defense program, especially in the face of absolute annihilation.
It does beg the question of whether or not that friendship also extends to Nick Fury Jr., considering the elder Fury has been preoccupied with his time spent imprisoned by the Watcher's as the Unseen, forced to silently observe the goings-on of his homeworld without being able to intervene or speak out against any of them. Nick Fury Jr. has become a prominent S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in his own right over his time with the organization, and it wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility that he is already well aware of the support that his father is clandestinely showing for the newest iteration of S.W.O.R.D.
With the backing of Fury Sr., it's hard to imagine that S.H.I.E.L.D. as a whole would be against the idea of lending a hand to their former sister organization, though what kind of help that would even be at this point is yet to be seen. While things off-world aren't looking great, the agents aboard the Peak have at least proven to be able to keep themselves safe throughout the dragon assault that has been taking place. If things don't change soon, it might be S.H.I.E.L.D. that is reaching out to Brand for the next big assist.