Indeed, Several Months Later...

Gene had just gotten done with work for the day. He was proud of some of his Empire's accomplishments since the NukePocalypse back in January, as it has come to be known. The Plutonian Empire welcomed peace treaties with several "nearby" nations, including Brazil and South Africa. Nations in the Northern Hemisphere, were still less inviting. America especially, repeatedly, albeit sporatically, launched random attacks, all of which would fail. Nuclear attacks, especially, simply got magically disabled and enabled the Empire to harvest the warheads themselves as soon as they reached Pluton Island.

The computer virus that caused the NukePocalypse was finally stamped out, although the nuclear Pandora's Box had already been opened, as evidenced by repeated attacks on the Plutonian Empire. The Belle Hadeans went back to Delta Trianguli at the end of January, as planned. In the mean time, while the supernatural population grew rapidly, humans slowly trickled in, as word got out of the Plutonian Empire being a "Frozen Paradise", a nice reprieve from the global warming crisis and ever hotter summers. And especially from the radiation and nuclear dust that has spread across the world.

Unfortunately, it turned out the pandemic that emerged in China had already been circulating for a few months longer than previously estimated. It was labeled Coronavirus, with the disease it caused being labeled Covid-19 in February. The NukePocalypse sped up the viral propagation in some regions, slowed it down in others, and the destruction of most of the critical medical facilities across the world exponentially increased it's deadliness. The world would take much longer than expected to recover. However, nature was already beginning to reclaim some of her losses from the past few centuries, a little bit sooner than if Coronavirus had not hit at all (but with the NukePocalypse still happening).

Gene made his way home to his flat, and changed to his every day casual wear. He hated wearing suits with a passion, and always preferred either a snarky tee and gym shorts, or sweats and a hoodie for the coldest of weather. This time he was in sweats and a hoodie. The planned weather for today was a thundersnowstorm for the whole of the island. After changing, Gene headed back out to hang at his Hangout.

Coming through the doors, Gene was greeted by the sight he had become accustomed to; a sparsely populated arcade and Adelle bartending to the right. Gene sat down and joined a LAN game of Call of Duty being played by three human guys, a welcome sight after being mostly supernaturals when the Empire was first born.

After about ten minutes, Gene heard the door open and close, but didn't pay attention. Almost immediately, he felt a tap on his shoulder, nearly startling him...