The elevator door closed nearly at the same second that John hit the button to go up to the fifth floor conference room. When it did, the air in the elevator grew colder by a few degrees. As the elevator started moving, John could tell by the weight on his knees and hips lifting that he was going down.

He waited patiently as the elevator descended, increasing in the speed every few seconds. After nearly a full minute of motion, it slowed, and then finally stop. A loud chime filled the air, and the doors opened with a hiss and pop. On the other side was a clean white room, with a man in dress uniform and an outrageous amount of accommodations and metals attached to his chest standing at its center.

“Good to see you, John,” General Greaves said as he smiled.

“What’s the problem, Greaves? The bags under your eyes are big enough to feed a horse.” John stepped into the white room and extended his hand. His friend took it and his smile shifted from tired to bone tired.

“It’s been a long five months, John.” John patted him on the shoulder as he released the handshake.

“What can I do to help?” General Greaves perked up at that.

“Let me show you. It’s pretty cool.”

“I bet. From what I saw just coming in here, I’m sure whatever plans you have are big.” Greaves’ smile grew and a light seemed to switch on in his eyes.

“The things we have planned, John, if I could show you all of them. . . Well, I can’t. But I can show you something amazing. Follow me.” The duo began walking towards one of the four seamless walls. John slowed, but Greaves continued directly at the wall opposite the elevator. Greaves reached the wall and disappeared entirely, winking out of existence as if it had deleted him.

“What in the. . .” Greaves’ hand reached back through the white wall, grabbed John’s and pulled him through. A white light flashed in his eyes, and John felt . . . refreshed. For the first time in years his hips didn’t twing in pain just standing there. “Uh, Greaves? What is this?” He found himself in a massive hanger filled with an unnaturally white light. At the center of the hanger was a large sphere as white as the room he had just come from.

“That John? That is one thing I can tell you about. But, I’ll have to wait for your official briefing.” Greaves started walking, and John followed. They moved along the side of the hanger, and when Greaves came to a door, he pulled it open and motioned for John to enter. “After you.” Inside was a small conference room with half a dozen people sitting around. The odd white light was here too, as was the feeling of rejuvenation. “Take a seat, and we’ll get started.” John took a seat right in the middle of the U shaped conference table as Greaves stood with two people in lab coats standing at the podium.

As Greaves worked with the two lab coats on something, John looked around the room. It was filled with mostly older people. Some of them he had trained either during his time at the Pentagon or at Westpoint. He waved at these and they greeted him back. But most of them were people John had never met.

One was a Captain from the Coast Guard who sat next to an Airforce Colonel. Both were people he had never met before, but they looked hardened. The coast guard captain looked like you could cut diamonds with her glare, and the air force colonel looked like someone needed to hand the man a sandwich. His eyes were sunken, he was skinny and fit, which wasn’t entirely uncommon among the Airforce, but what was uncommon was the stare of a man who had been forced to end lives.

Few in the Airforce had that stare. Whoever this colonel was, he had seen combat. Had been forced to make some rough calls. If John was any judge of such things, he had been forced to make them relatively recently. On his right side, John knew most of the people. The one he didn’t know was an army colonel who wore a rangers insignia. He was in full battle rattle, all but his rifle and sidearm which had probably been taken by security on his way in. His helmet sat on the table in front of him, and the man’s disfiguring scar was clear for the entire world to see. John was about to introduce himself when Greaves cleared his throat.

“Thank you all for coming.” The lights dimmed, and a projection appeared to the side of Greaves. “You all know me, and most of you know each other. Most of you were on the cusp of retirement, or in its deadly throws. I and the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff have deemed it appropriate to rescue you from that horrible fate.” That elicited several laughs, including a chuckle from John, who shook his head. Greaves was always the one to sound hard and make jokes, even in the worst of situations.

“All of you know why you are here. At least vaguely. Let me dispel any doubt or confusion that might still linger and lay it out plainly. Everyone in this room, except John, is being reactivated for the foreseeable future, and assigned to the African Fort.” Nearly everyone in the room grumbled a question or swore under their breath, but no one interrupted. “Over the course of the last five months, after the system integration began, the world went to shit. Chaos on the streets of every major city.” The projector threw pictures with riots onto the wall behind Greaves. Buildings, entire neighborhoods seen from the sky, leveled in the madness.

“People who were given power or somehow gained power through the system quickly took over in some parts of the country.” A picture of a man and a woman standing together over the corpses of dozens of others with hundreds more bowing to them was labeled at the bottom with the city, Cleavland.

“Entire towns were massacred.” A picture of a giant bear being hit by several missiles in the center of a destroyed Midwest town came up on screen. Before John could get the name of the place, another scene with a giant squid ridden by a naked woman with pale white skin destroying skyscrapers appeared. This one with the words New York City along the bottom.

“Whether gone mad with power, or caused by people not knowing what the hell they were doing with their newfound abilities, thousands of people have been killed.” A picture of a little girl crying in a town wide inferno came up, labeled Copenhagen, Nebraska. They had taken it from the air. “Thankfully, in the last case, we have been able to help some learn to control their powers. To live safe lives, or become support for others going through the same process.” Another picture, this time of the same little girl with a young black woman with close cut hair, came up. The black woman was in a US Army Uniform, she was young, and her smile was genuine. She wore a strange patch John didn’t recognize. He shot his hand up.

“Uh, Yes John? Question?”

“Who is that girl?” he pointed at the black woman. “And what is that patch?” Greaves smiled.

“We’ve been able to restore order in most parts of the country, but New York and LA are still hotbeds of insanely powerful people doing insane things. Florida, oddly enough, maintained its calm for most of the crisis.” Chuckles came from some people in the room, and John smiled.

“But the rest of the country has been, mostly, either calmed, contained, or at least suppressed. To combat the threats, and to help those who lacked control of their powers, we drafted dozens of the most stable, and most powerful people we could throughout the country and formed our new Magic Corp within the Army. They deal with training or suppressing other worldly threats by the controlled application of extra physical force.”

“Magic,” the coast guard captain said. Her voice was filled with accusation and disgust.

“Yes. The system calls it magic. What we have come to understand it as, is the direct manipulation of natural forces through other than natural means. The occult is, of course, a different matter altogether. Having read your file Captain Donahue, it sounds like that is what your ship encountered at sea.” The captain gave a disgusted sound, and Greaves nodded sympathetically. “Dr. Stirges can answer questions on that matter after the presentation.” The captain nodded and sat back in her chair.

“Why am I being deployed to Africa?” This was one of the younger members of the group along the back wall. John had nearly forgotten about the JR staff officers. Habit from his time as a General. The young man was a major in the army, and from what John knew of the young Rodgers, he was a requisitions clerk. Not a front light warfighter. Rodgers’ father had been one of John’s friends. Tragically, the boy hadn’t inherited his father’s sense of violence. “I just got married, are our families going to come with us?”

Greaves sighed. “Major Rodgerson. Everyone, please hold your questions until the end of the presentation.” John smiled, and Greaves looked directly at him. “That brings me to the second piece of information you will all need to know. General McIntire has agreed to re-enlist and lead the defense of the African Fort.”

“What fort? I thought that was what my entire division was working on?” One of the civilian scientists said from behind the general. Greaves’ expression fell, and he turned towards the man.

“Dr. Stirges please. I’m trying to explain.” The scientist’s eyes went wide as he gave an ‘oh’ and stepped back. “The African fort was originally supposed to be staffed by African Union troops from various states, and supported a by European task force in the same model the South American fort has been by the US. However,” Greaves pressed a button and a map of Africa with various locations marked on the border of the different regional players. South Africa had a dozen locations marked. “There have been several dozen incidents throughout the continent, all located around nations that abut the pillar’s location. Europe has all but sworn off the site as unsalvageable, though from reports there are some lead elements still in the region.” A green star appeared squarely in the middle of the continent on the very southern tip of Chad.

“Shit, you didn’t tell me it was in Chad.” John said, frowning at his old friend. Greaves had the decency to at least look chagrined. “No wonder the euro’s thought it was in-securable.”

“I didn’t tell you John because until this meeting the location of the African pillar was classified top secret eyes only.”

“And you just so happened to declassify it as I entered the building, I bet.” Several chuckles ran around the room and John shook his head, fighting from yelling. “Boy, I can’t tell you how often I had to send good men and women into that godforsaken part of the world, and they never came back. Or if they did, they were missing fingers, limbs, or worse. At least tell me the African Union suppressed the local militia groups?” Greaves frowned at John, calling him ‘boy’, but he quickly adopted his characteristic wicked smile.

“Yes! Yes they did. The African Union along with the European Union sent in an initial task force that swept through the area and eliminated most of the terrorist and factional forces.”

“And then they turned on one another like a pack of rabid dogs.” Said the second scientist. The only woman in the room in a lab coat glowered at Greaves, who was getting it from all sides.

“Which is why we were trying to keep its location top secret. But, the SAR, and several other central African countries on the verge of failed state status, decided it was a good idea to try to seize the pillar on their own. Which started a multinational battle right atop the damned thing, halting construction of the fort. Which in turn has left the entire continent of Africa, and the world, open for invasion from God Knows What is on the other side of that damn pillar when it opens in a few months! That, ladies and gentlemen, is where all of you are going, to secure the one soft point this planet has at the moment damn it!” Greaves yelled, went quiet, and stood, hands grasping the podium in front of him, shuddering. Everyone in the room, including John, went quiet. “And. . . and I don’t know if . . .”

“Sir, I think this might be a good stopping point.” The female scientist leaned in close and whispered in Greave’s ear. Her words were loud enough for everyone to hear in the quiet as she spoke. “You’ve been awake for nearly 96 hours sir, the revivification field isn’t intended to replace sleep. Perhaps we can revisit this in the morning?” Greaves stood shaking for a few seconds longer, and John frowned. His friend was far worse off than he thought. The world was far worse off than John had thought. He’d do his part. That was all anyone could ask. He just hoped it would be enough.

“I think a break is a good idea.” Greaves stood straight and gave the room a winning smile. “Give me a few minutes, grab yourselves some coffee, or other refreshment, and we’ll pick up in thirty minutes.”