Chapter 3

Ellie stares wideyed down at the bustling throngs of people who seems to have spawned seemingly out of nowhere in the formerly desolate streets of Hammer Bay. The first thing I did after activating the resurrection wave across the island was throw up a calming field as well to keep everyone from panicking once they woke up completely and their last memories before Nova's attack resurfaced. So far it seems to be holding, as the newly revived mutants are just looking around everywhere in mild confusion and curiosity. I do a double check, making sure that everyone came back right and didn't resurrect inside out or in a wall or something, before turning to adress the crowd.

I'm not a telepath but I can fake a similar effect by letting my voice project itself into the minds of everyone on the island. even if I have to speak out loud to do it, and it's easier than having to repeat this explanation over and over again. I walk up to the edge of the roof and look down at the crowd.

"Hey, testing! Testing! Can everyone hear me?" There's a bustle in the crowd as the people begin looking around for the source of my voice. "Yeah, up here people, on the really tall building! No, not that one, the one across the street. Right, here I am" I finally seem to have gotten the attention of everyone present "Yeah, alright, uh, where to start... Okay, I guess I'll start with names. My name is Ginnungagap, and this is my associate Negasonic Teenage Warhead. Some of you might know her already."

Ellie gives an awkward wave to the crowd.

"Anyway, just to get it out of the way, uh, yes, you were dead. All of you, dead as doornails." There's an uncomfortable shuffle in the crowd at my words but no real fear "Yeah, I know, it sucks, but anyway, I brought you back, because I thought the way you all got wiped out was bullshit, and I even fixed your country while I was at it. So, you know, hope I did all that correctly." There's a surprised murmur "Yes, yes, I can bring people back to life apparently. Mutant powers man, they're ridiculous. So just...go about your regular everyday lives, I put everything back the way it was so your homes and businesses and whatnot are the same as they were. Oh, just a heads up to whoeever runs the goverment here, you've been dead for two years and the entire country rubble, so you might want to get started on re-establishing foreign relations. Not my job, so I'll leave you to it."

I step back from the ledge, dusting my hands, only to come face to face with Ellie who gives me an incredulous look.

"THAT was your big speech?"

I shrug "I'm not much of a public speaker. Don't worry, I'm leaving an anti-fear field over Genosha until everyone has had time to settle back down, they should be fine."

She shakes her head "When you were talking, did you adress everyone on Genosha, or just the people here?"

"Everyone, why?"

She gives a chuckle "Because you told them to look at the building we're standing on! The only people who could even see us were the people on this street! Everyone else in the country would have no idea what the hell you were babbling about!"

Damnit! She's right, I didn't even think about that. "...like I said, not much of a public speaker. Look, I just brought an entire country back to life, I think you can cut me some slack!"

"You are just terrible at being a god."

I grumble and begin thinking about my next move. "Hey, we should probably go have a talk to whoever runs this place. What do you have, a president or a council or something?"

"Seriously, just the worst."

...

The head of the Genoshan goverment, atleast now that Magneto no longer runs it, turns out to be the Head Magistrate, a title they still use despite the... frankly ghoulish connection to Genoshas apartheid past. The current one is a middle-aged man with green scales who introduces himself as Magistrate Anderson. One interesting thing I have noticed about Genosha is that there are far more mutants with physical mutations here, the kind you usually only saw in group scenes in the comics. Though I suppose it makes sense that mutants with visible mutations would suffer more prejudice and thus be more likely to head to the new mutant homeland...for all the good it did them.

Not going to happen again, not on my watch.

Anderson is looking somewhat frazzled, leaning on his desk as he observes me and Ellie, who tries to inch herself behind me to hide. "You'll have to excuse me, Mr...Ginnungagap. It's not everyday you're told you've been dead for two years and have to reestablish every aspect of your goverment as fast as possible. That we don't have riots all over the island on our hands is nothing short of a miracle."

I raise my hand "Actually, that was me too, I figured people might panic when they realized they had died, so I suppressed the fear response of everyone in the country." He just stares at me "What? It's not permanent if that's what you're worried about."

"That's not..." He sighs "Mr Ginnungagap, while I don't want to seem ungrateful, what exactly are your intentions towards our nation? You've done us a true service that we'll never be able to repay, but Genosha has seen great liberators before, with less than stellar results. If you're just looking to set up your own kingdom..." I guess having Magneto run the place can make anybody paranoid, and that's not even touching on the monsters who preceeded him.

"I'm not interested in being the next mutant messiah or whatever, I just saw two very big wrongs that had been done against mutantkind that needed to be undone, and I had the power to do it now. I honestly hadn't thought what to do after this was finished."

Anderson nods thoughtfully "Would you be willing to stay on Genosha for the time being? There are a great many people who will wish to express their gratitude towards you, and many have questions as well."

I shrug "I don't have any other specific plans for now, though I'm not planning on staying here forever."

"There's also a...secondary concern, both from me and the rest of the ruling council. Genosha was never well accepted on the international scene after the original human goverment was overthrown, even after Magneto was ousted and a democratic goverment implemented. We're worried that our sudden reappearance might draw agression from the rest of the world."

Yeah, that's a very good point "Well, I can protect you easily enough while I'm here, but like I said, I'm not planning on sticking around, so don't try waving me around as a deterence while you reforge your political ties with the outside world."

"You did mention creating an... anti-fear field of some sort over the country? Could you not create something similar to ward off any possible attacks?"

I frown "I could...but I won't" He looks ready to protest, but I cut him off "You already have about 5 million or so mutants with powers strong enough to function as living WMD's, I'm not giving you a way to avoid reprisal attacks too. I like Genosha, but I'm not giving you that kind of temptation." I will, however, be putting a few subtle protections in place before I leave, but I'm not telling anyone that.

He doesn't like that but doesn't argue any further "Fair enough. Now, about these questions..."

"What did you have in mind?"

He smiles "How do you feel about a television appearance?"

Goddamnit. "Not...super great."

....

"I am NOT wearing makeup!"

The wardrobe assistant assigned to make me look presentable for the cameras gives me an exasperated look. She had managed to talk me into wearing something more presentable than my usual denim vest and t-shirt combo, even if they had trouble finding anything my size until I pointed out to them I could just alter whatever they picked to the right size. That said, I drew the line when she tried to convince me to put on some powder to make me less shiny on screen or something, I stopped listening when she brought out the powder puff.

Ellie giggles at my outrage from where she's sitting on a stack of equipment boxes. "Couldn't you just make yourself look TV-pretty or whatever the problem is? Or atleast trim that beard of yours a bit?"

I give her a glare "You know, I think I liked you better right after I brought you back, you showed way more deference."

"Yeah, but that was before I spent a whole day around you. You're a lot less intimidating after I watched you yell at a flock of seagulls for almost crapping on you when you moved the Sentinel statue."

"I hate seagulls!" I growl "They're sky garbage!"

"Uh, sir?" The assistant draws my attention back to her "About the makeup, it's just that your complexion will look rather pasty on camera without this, and-"

"Oh for- THERE!" I wave my hand in front of my face, putting an aura over it "Now my skin will look just as nauseatingly healthy as your average TV douchebag. Are we done yet?"

The program in question was apparently an old goverment propaganda station the mutant regime had repurposed for emergency information or other events that required everyones attention. The goverment had grabbed one of their PR specialists to host the show and field pre-approved questions fed to him remotely by a telepath, though thankfully it did not feature a live audience, as I wasn't particularly interested in trying to play to a crowd on top of everything else. I could just have refused of course, but it seemed like I might as well rip this band-aid off sooner rather than later.

The program manager waved for me, and I nodded goodbye to Ellie before I headed onto the set, where the host, an attractive woman with striking blue skin who rather reminded me of Mystique was just finishing up her presentation to the viewers.

"-and by request of Head Magistrate Anderson, our mysterious savior has graciously agreed to make an appearance and allow himself to be interviewed. It's an honor for me to introduce to Genosha; Ginnungagap!"

I take a deep breath and walk in front of the cameras.

.....

Tony Stark watched the computer screen in mute horror "Are we 100% sure this is legitimate?"

Hill nodded somberly "It aired on Genosha's national television network less than an hour ago. And considering the entire country literally just came back to life, I'd say that it's pretty unlikely they'd be lying about something like this." They kept watching for a moment "Sir, right now this has only aired inside Genosha, but it's only a matter of time before it leaks to the media. If the world finds out that both the Regenesis and the Genoshan resurrection was the result of a single mutant..."

Stark groaned exhaustedly "We're going to have to think up a new classification for this asshole, I don't think Omega-level is going to cut it. Hell, STORM is Omega-level, and she looks like she could barely create a drizzle compared to this." He slumped back in his chair "This is it, this is exactly the kind of thing Trask whipped people into a frenzy over all those years ago, the fear that some random guy would wake up one day with the powers of a God and just so whatever he wanted with them, because there was no one strong enough to stop him!"

Stark watched as the large, scruffy looking man on the screen literally turned an apple to gold and then back again just to demonstrate his abilities and shook his head "We're going to need to get this guy on our side, one way or another. This level of power going unchecked, it's just unthinkable."

Hill nodded "And if we can't?"

Stark didn't answer, but inwardly, he was already planning. He knew Reed would probably protest, but why did they have the Infinity Stones if not for this exact situation?