"The people don't want 'justice'—that's an emotional word," I whispered, "The people want Order. They want to wake up and know that the person in charge isn't a sleeper agent. They want to know that the water is clean, the streets are safe, and the future is certain. I can give them that certainty. But I need you to give me the mandate."
The American Vice President was the first to pick up the pen. His mind was a muddle of fear and the artificial warmth I was radiating. To him, I looked like a savior. To me, he was just the first domino.
"For a world without ghosts," he whispered, signing the Geneva Accord.
The others followed. In that quiet room, the maps of the old world were metaphorically burned. The United Nations was dissolved. The World Security Council was a footnote.
Hours later, I stood before the podium, the silence of the world absolute as billions held their breath. My Omega-level Technopathy tuned the very hertz of the global transmission to a frequency that resonated with the human heart, making my voice more like an internal realization.
I leaned into the microphone, my Friend Aura radiating a warmth so profound it felt like a physical embrace to those in the front rows.
"Citizens of Earth," I began, my voice carrying the weight of a thousand years of history. "For as long as we have walked this ground, we have been told that our safety lies in the lines we draw in the dirt. We were told that we were Americans, Russians, Chinese, Indians—that our neighbors were our rivals, and that our secrets were our strength. We were told that the shadows were necessary to protect the light."
I paused, letting the Telepathy ripple through the crowd, pulling their lingering fears to the surface just so I could dissolve them.
"But the shadows didn't protect us. They fed on us. While we looked at each other with suspicion, a ghost—a relic of an ancient hatred—built its nest in the very heart of our institutions. Hydra exploited our division. They thrived because we were too busy guarding our borders to notice they had already crossed them."
I raised my head, my eyes shining with a prophetic fire.
"That age is over. The era of the nation-state, with its petty jealousies and hidden agendas, has ended. The era of the secret has ended. We have seen what lies in the dark, and we refuse to go back to it. Today, we do not rise as factions. We do not rise as competitors for resources or land. Today, we rise as the Earth Federation."
The air seemed to hum as I projected a telepathic vision of the future into the minds of everyone watching—a vision of green cities, of clean oceans, of a world where no child wakes up in the shadow of a missile.
"We have purged the Hydra, but the purification has only just begun. We have sworn a sacred oath: Never again will a ghost rule from the shadows. Never again will a 'classified' document weigh more than a human life. We are replacing the 'Shield' with the 'Sun.' We are building a house with no locked doors, governed by a logic that cannot be corrupted and a transparency that cannot be bypassed."
I opened my arms wide, the Omega-level Shapeshifting ensuring my silhouette looked like a monument of strength and openness.
"We choose the light because we are tired of the dark. We choose order because we have tasted the chaos of betrayal. We choose each other because we have finally realized that there is no 'them'—there is only us. The Federation is not a government imposed upon you; it is the manifestation of your collective will to survive, to prosper, and to finally, finally be free of the fear that has defined our species for millennia."
I lowered my voice to a whisper that echoed in every ear on the planet.
"The sun is rising on a world that is whole. Welcome to Day One."
As the crowd erupted into a roar of relief and adoration so loud it shook the glass of the surrounding skyscrapers, I looked directly into the camera lens. My expression remained one of humble service, but behind my eyes, the Cognitive Multitasking was already processing the data.
Somewhere, Nick Fury was watching from a basement, his one eye narrowed as he realized he had been outplayed by a man who didn't even use a gun.
Somewhere, Tony Stark was flying through the clouds, his HUD flashing with the news, thinking his 'truth' had set the world free, never realizing he had simply cleared the path for my throne.
They thought the battle was over because the monsters were dead. They didn't understand that the world didn't want freedom—it wanted a master it could love. And as I watched the global approval ratings spike to unprecedented heights, I knew that I was the first master in history to give them exactly what they asked for.
But as I felt the collective mind of the planet begin to settle into the "Safe" frequency I was projecting, I knew the truth. I had claimed it.
Later that night, back in the sanctum of the Federation headquarters, I sat with the Red Queen. I was still in the form of The Leader, though my expression was now the calculating one of Aryan.
"The first 'Audit' is ready, Chancellor," she reported.
"Good," I replied. "Target the opposition parties in the remaining holdout territories. Plant the 'Hydra' signatures in their private servers. Make it look like they were planning a counter-coup. We need to show the public that the Federation's 'Strict Investigation' is working."
"And the GPP members?"
"They are the investigators," I said, "They are the only ones who are 'clean,' because I have made them so. We will spend the next year 'purifying' the planet. By the time we're done, every position of power on Earth will be held by someone who owes their life—and their mind—to me."
The world wanted a hero to protect them from the ghosts. I gave them one. And in return, they gave me the keys to the cage.
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