Content as a "sleeper" agent working in an accounting department, Alexander Goodwin Pierce's life would take a sharp turnaround when Nick Fury barged into his life while on the run during the Deltite Affair.

Pierce came out the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy a qualified top caliber field agent, majoring in integrated civilian surveillance and decoding high level HYDRA dispatches. However he receded into the 'sleeper' status and was living practically a civilian life in the Soho district of Manhattan when he was drafted into Fury's efforts to reclaim his organization from the vast conspiracy eating away at S.H.I.E.L.D.

Pierce's idealism and belief in S.H.I.E.L.D. made him the perfect match for Fury in this trying time. After some transition time, Pierce quickly shed pounds and even displayed a killer instinct that world spell consequences for the future. Driven by a desire to live up to his potential, Pierce launched a mad frontal attack on the HYDRA base commanded by the Hong Kong Supreme Hydra, Madame Viper. His bravura was such that Viper's warped warrior code ignited a bizarre obsession with him.

Following the hearings in the aftermath of the Deltite Affair and the demise of the agency, Pierce was assigned as custodian to S.H.I.E.L.D. Central. During this time, Pierce began receiving love letters from Viper, who was incarcerated. These notes left him psychologically scarred, believing himself capable of horrible things. Pierce was never aware of the last Delta LMD, Red, had escaped the S.H.I.E.L.D. satellite and hidden herself in the abandoned complex.

After attacks by the Death’s Head Commandos, former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent the Contessa Valentina Allegro De Fontaine and Al MacKenzie called on Pierce to learn of where Fury was. Afraid that Fury would be next on their list, Pierce joined their party in seeking out Fury. Following their mission, Val helped convince Nick Fury to return and lead a new S.H.I.E.L.D., and Pierce was among the first agents in the new agency. The early months of this stripped down and smaller scale S.H.I.E.L.D. placed Pierce in direct combat with several villains, including Leviathan and Lohan.

The escape of Viper from prison ignited Pierce's awkward feelings for the femme fatale. Pierce was kidnapped and subsequently brainwashed by Viper, who was part of a new HYDRA lead by the Yellow Claw. Pierce broke the conditioning and watched the Viper explode herself.

As the new S.H.I.E.L.D. grew, Pierce became one of its most viable operatives, seen in actions involving Deathlok, the Punisher, Damage Control, and the rouge mutant team, X-Force. The return of Baron Wolfgang Von Strucker and HYDRA's massacre of 15,000 graduating S.H.I.E.L.D. agents struck a serious blow to the agency and Pierce was among the lead operatives in the new fight against HYDRA.

Standing as one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s best operatives, Pierce harbored a fierce loyalty to Fury, to whom he owed his new leash on life.

Fury clearly kept in contact with Pierce and brought him into his post-S.H.I.E.L.D. plans involving his 'secret warriors' against HYDRA and Leviathan. Pierce headed up the White Caterpillar team gathering intelligence on Hydra. Following the end of the Levithan/Hydra war, Pierce was seen as one of the agents of the third S.H.I.E.L.D., headed by Daisy Johnson.

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