Major General Scott Lenard Jackson sighed and leaned on his desk, troubled at even more terrible news.

They had lost another power plant, the planet seemed to finally be retaliating at humanity's continued abuse.

Earth-quakes, active volcanoes, and a Tsunami in the Caribbean was all the news he got before lines started giving trouble, with news like this it was a surprise they were still clinging on.

Not to mention the sun was bearing down unnatural amounts of heat, temperatures were higher than any normal summers, he pitied people near desert climates.

'I'm getting too old for this.' At fifty-five, he had already been seeing his retirement in the distance.

The first thing they had done was call in at Washington for orders, then when the satellites went down he got together all senior staff and voted on what to do.

He got in contact with local police forces and began addressing civilian unrest, evacuations, arrests, and deputization were all too common for his liking.

Knowing human's inherent tendency to violence during times of crisis, he brought up the point to raise shelters for civilians.

Major military installations were mostly concentrated in the South-east and they were working around the clock to re-organize with what they had on hand.

A major problem for the army was deployment and desertion, soldiers in countries abroad were now all but cut off.

Thankfully, some of the families of officers and soldiers alike had been living in military housing communities and many others were based on dorms, else, even more, might have gone off to God-know-where.

It may be selfish of him to prioritize evacuations on local soldier families, but in his opinion, it would prevent the soldiers from running off in a foolish attempt to save them.

Who could ask a man fight for his country as his family fends for themselves? Not to say they did not evacuate regular civilians though, it was their job and DUTY to save them.

'When the hearts of men turn cold and grow apathetic to the suffering of others.' Scott sighed, as he read the most recent crime report.

Criminal organizations were in a prime place to take advantage of this crisis, unregistered or stolen fire-arms, add in deeply ingrained ruthlessness and you have a monster problem, apart from the ACTUAL monster problem.

With inherent organization and callous selfishness, they could consolidate their power without expending resources on helping people.

Already he had reports of rampant kidnapping, rape, coldblooded murder, and looting, not to mention all other smaller crimes he had no time to even consider addressing.

All in all, they were parasites, experience had taught him they should be gutted root and stem, instead, lawyers advocated humanitarian rights to animals wearing only our skin.

"Sir?" A lower ranked officer deferred to him.

"Hmmm?" Scott eyed him with his slate-grey eyes, he knew they unnerved him.

"Uhh.. Sir, you've been staring off into space for a while now." The officer said.

"I was just thinking. Report to Jones, tell her we have to do another meeting. Soon." Scott dismissed him.

As the officer fled Scott sighed, he should not have treated him that way, stress was getting to him.

His son and grandchildren were safe, it had been a major relief but his daughter in law was still missing, he was fond of the nice girl and the children needed their mother.

She had become crazy, poor children had watched their mother go berserk, the oldest, his grandson, had held her down before she claws at his face and ran out on them.

Some form of Ghost-like monster had attacked them prior, it wasn't uncommon and a major problem also.

'I only hope we find her.' Scott sighed, his son was almost unfit for duty and Scott could not hold it against him.

They had found these possessed people and thankfully humanitarian laws dictated they imprison them at first, unfortunately, media portrayed too many apocalyptic films.

Violence was the first option people turned to, Scott could only pray for the poor souls who died to a shoot-first-ask-later mentality, at first people believed they were 'Zombies'.

Happenstance and the good grace of the Lord had allowed them to find that there was a way to save them.

They were now in the process of spreading the news as far as they could, those poor people needed saving.

'And this.' Scott looked at his arm, covered beneath his overly hot military uniform was a set of tattoos.

As odd as it was for a soldier, Scott never wanted tattoo's, as a universal blood donor he saw it had more cons than pros, especially as he grew older.

THESE tattoo's, on the other hand, were a completely different story, when he woke to a cottage in a desert with unfamiliar faces he was confused.

Training and experience let him easily lead his group to victory, coaching and leading ingrained in him.

There were few disagreements in his group, which he managed to easily quash before they became problems, morale must never falter or all is lost.

He began with a simple four in Body which at his age was fantastic and with a Mind rating of Five, the highest in his group of four, by the end he was at Body nine, Mind six and a Spirit of eight.

As he soon learned once he awoke he was one of the most singularly-powerful people on Earth now, average combined were fifteen downwards since everything became much harder to gain strength after that.

Unfortunately, he was now stagnant, as a leader his role was one of supervision, allotting jobs and deciding the best course of actions.

Still his newly revived youth and strength pulsed and urged him to action, he felt like a spring chicken, well if a spring chicken could outrun Olympic runners.

There was much they did not know of these new developments with civilian and personnel alike volunteering new information every hour.

Sorting through that mess was a headache and they had to assign specialists to unravel it, regular staff had many more problems to deal with.

The specialists were working around the clock inputting and taking down any information about their new abilities, soon they would have to reassign everyone to different duties depending on their powers.

Magic, the world was truly going crazy now, and...perhaps it truly was the end times as the bible pertained, still he would do his job till he dropped dead.

A knock on his wooden door alerted him, it open before he said 'come in' which was rude, not to mention against protocol so it could only be one person.

"You called?" A smooth familiar voice entered.

"It's against protocol to just waltz in you know." Scott smiled, at his old friend.

"Feel free to file a report, I doubt Washington will reply." Jones smiled that sarcastic smile of hers.

They lapsed in silence, the loss of communication was troubling.

"I'm sorry about your son." Scott blurted, he'd been unable to say it for some time, it was a harsh world they lived in, now more than ever.

"....I know, I'm sorry about Blair too." Jones looked up at the ceiling, Scott's mood turned morose at his daughter-in-law's name.

The silence was so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Jones, snapping out of her fudge, walked towards his cabinet, she pulled out a Blue Label, wonderful whiskey.

Two cups of the stuff were filled and one placed before him.

"You mind?" Jones held out her cup.

"I feel I should be offended." Scott snorted.

"Oh hurry up will you?" Jones whirled her whiskey.

Scott touched her glass briefly, a frost spread from his finger-tip, slowly it covered the glass entirely.

The drink chilled quickly and Scott restrained his power from shattering the glass.

"Look at the bright side Scottie, even if the world goes to hell. At least you can make chilled drinks." Jones took her whiskey like a shot, one gulp.

"Optimism from you? The world must really be ending." Scott smiled at the banter.

Truth be told Scott was glad on his choice of water, especially with the imposing heat, he felt snug the heat no worse than a regular summer day.

The water element was the most versatile, defensive power, offensive power, environmental control, and utility all in one.

Truly it was the middle ground, while only the life element could heal Chi energy could as well, thus Scott was a jack of all trades allowing him to face almost any foe.

"You'll drink that?" Jones eyed his drink.

"Of course, don't be greedy. Who knows when we will get some more." Scott quickly chilled his drink and took a sip, before the thief stole it.

"Tch, cheapskate." Jones shook her head.

Scott smiled, they had known each other for quite some time, having a wonderful work-relationship and a solid friendship.

"So? You didn't invite me here for that." Jones pointed at the whiskey.

"No, I'm sure you know we lost another plant." Scott hit the jugular.

"...I know, it's a major problem. We'll have to focus on the remaining few, cut off supply and prioritize." Jones bit her lips.

"We will have to speak to the others too." Scott sighed, sometimes democracy should be demo-crazy.

"Peters? He'll want us to go out and tackle every threat at once, head on." Jones said wistfully.

"You agree?" Scott frowned.

"Almost, relax Scott, I know we don't have the people power." Jones shook her head, Scott noticed how she evaded saying man-power.

"I'm glad you see the big picture. We still have to give some ground to Peters though, he does get things done, but there's a proper order to things." Scott smiled.

"Is that all? You know I agree. Mostly anyway," Jones shrugged as she added the last piece.

"On what?" Scott raised an eyebrow, he wondered what she disagreed on against him.

"Scott. I know this is hard." Jones started with that tone that told Scott a lecture was coming.

Scott straightened, steepling his fingers.

"Scott, how do you think it looks like when you have your son doing paperwork?" At least Jones didn't bullshit with him.

"Oh? I would expect you of all people to understand me." Scott's tone turned hard.

"He's a MARINE Scott, he swore himself to duty. Just like Jason." Jones' fire left her, but she shook her head and stared back at him.

Scott deflated, just like her son.

"I can't lose him. The kids need a parent." Scott defended himself.

"They have you, don't they? Besides your son's a strong man now, he'll do well out there." Jones argued.

Scott's eyes narrowed, why was she so insistent on this? He asked.

"....He asked me to talk to you. His comrades are ostracizing him. It makes you both look weak." Jones admitted.

A long time passed, Scott fought with himself, pros and cons warring.

"I'll think on it." Scott sighed, she was right and his son was old enough to make his own choices, even if they hurt.

Scott watched his glass, he chilled it to slush and guzzled it down, slamming the cup down.

"Fine. What else?" Scott gritted his teeth and frowned all business.

"We need to deputize more people. Light duty, of course, guard duty and maintenance mostly. Just enough to free up those on active duty, they need more sleep." Jones explained.

"More? At this rate, we'll have more civilians than soldiers. Performance'll drop." Scott pointed out the problem, despite knowing it was inevitable.

"As long as they perform." Jones shrugged.

Scott eyed the bottle of whiskey, it looked more and more tantalizing by the minute.

Motioning his cup, Jones readily poured them each another, Scott chilled them and took this one slow, he had to be coherent after-all.

"How much?" Scott took a sip.

"Eh?" Jones looked at him confused.

"How much of this country do you think we can save?" Scott gazed at his cup, feeling helpless.

"...Best case scenario? If every other base is doing about the same as us? I'd say about half." Jones looked up.

"Half? Best case scenario. Half." Scott scoffed, half the country.

Half of one of THE most powerful countries in the world, good God above, how would the other countries fare?

Unstable countries in the Middle East and Africa, underdeveloped countries all over the world, how would they even have a chance?

Then there's the other problem, the countries that DO surive and are led by Unethical leaders, what will they do once the world power shifts?

Hopefully not another world war.

"Remember, people, aren't helping either. Looting, property damage and close to all-out-war on the streets." Jones reminded him.

Scott scoffed again, he was well aware.

"And the animals," Jones added as she finished her drink.

The animals, they were not anything of the sort, they were monsters now no doubt in his mind.

Monsters somehow grew far faster than humans, they also turned feral, attacking humans almost on sight.

Bullets worked for the most part, but it was a close call sometimes, Scott was not looking forward to seeing one that grew too quickly.

"Any updates on that front?" Scott waivered.

"No. Animals don't seem to grow with these though. The guys on it think that may have something to do with their speed." Jones pointed at her uniform sleeve, where the tattoo markings were.

"Huh? That so?" Scott looked at them.

"Yes." Jones looked at it absently.

"So you're saying it's limiting us?" Scott eyed his fore-arm, briefly wondering if it could be removed.

"May-be, we might just turn into monsters without it. Mutating uncontrollably doesn't have an appeal." Jones clarified.

"How nice of them. Those gods?." Scott said sarcastically, gods, there was only one God and none of those pretenders were Him.

"No need to be sarcastic Scott, ancient civilizations would, of course, associate powerhouses with godhood." Jones chided him lightly.

Scott remained silent on the matter.

"Well, I'm off. See you at the meeting Scottie." Jones got up and left.

"Hm? Yeah, bye." Scott waved her away.

'She could at least have put the bottle back.' Scott sighed at his old friend.