The First Age

The air was finally warm in Virginia. Sage hated the winter, it dried out his skin and it kept him inside because he couldn't stand the cold - it bothered the port and the incision scar and made it itch and painful. The air was cool, his wallet was in his front jeans pocket as he wandered down the streets of Alexandria on foot. It looked like he was just idly walking but he was doing so much more. His mind was split with the menial task and the rest was scanning through thousands of newly created pages on the internet. There were programs running in his head that searched out his friends, one that monitored the den's security systems for any breaches that would make his vision flash red if there was a breach.

The first time it had happened Sage nearly fell down the stairs of The Den. It hadn't happened often since then and it still startled him.

He had other trivial tasks running but they were background tasks he always ran most of the time he didn't even notice them unless they brought something to his attention. Small things like the coffee was running low in one of the cafe's. He didn't run anything he had managers and accountants and everything do those things. The cafe and the den paid for themselves and left him with an income and he could do whatever he wanted. The life he enjoyed so much - such as taking a walk for no reason other than that he could.

His walk was interrupted by a priority site that just went live. The CCD Magic Registration. Sage laughed out loud which received a few glares from others on the street as he walked along the river just across from our Nation's Capitol. He wondered what the government thought of that. But he didn't think long on it as he started poking around at their security.

It was a government site of course, he wasn't going to breach their security unless of course he saw a flaw, then he'd send a white hat hacker their way and and make them fix it. Not everyone had a small grain of morals about them. Not that Sage did, but he didn't exploit things that could be harmful to other people. He only gathered information. Information was like his drug, the more he had the better he felt and the more he needed in the end. All thanks to the piece of hardware stuck in his head. Not that he would change anything really. It was part of him now. He'd put his parents away for a very long time because they threatened him. He wasn't sure he could do more but he hadn't had to. There was a small pain of loss but they wanted to kill him to study him... Fuck that!

Sage sent packet after packet at the new registration site to bring it crawling to it's knees. Maybe someone would beg him or one of the other collective members to fix it.


Edited by Sage, Aug 9 2016, 04:37 PM.

Whoever was on the other side of the ocean threw up a static page in lieu of the form that had been in place. Sage was still tying up the connections to the server with his mass of requests, but it was boring now. They would soon reroute to another IP address and block his IP block set. It was one reason why he didn't DDoS often. It was a pointless exercise in brute force.

The sudden urge to attack had soon fled as he'd flung the packets at the server for no reason other than he could. Sage killed the small program he'd created on the fly.

A simple command   $ kill 213  


Sage sighed as he relinquished the block of IPs to the ether and request a new set from the server. Some other poor sob could have the IP and be banned forever from the CCD government website. It was an expense the den would have to absorb, but it wasn't like he hadn't had to do it for others being stupid in the den.

Sage resumed his walk and continued his daily tasks. There was so much information to parse. He smiled as he walked, a cute girl smiled back as he passed her.

Sage spun on his heel and watched her retreat with a wry grin. Maybe he needed something a little more physical than walking... Sage started to follow the girl who'd passed him moments before.


Edited by Sage, Aug 9 2016, 07:11 PM.

Sage followed the girl to a Starbucks around the corner. He smiled as he stopped next to her in line. "Their coffee sucks. I know a better place around the corner."


She smiled at him, and brought her left hand to her lips. "My fiance only drinks from Starbucks." The diamond was small on the ring she was proudly showing off.

Sage laughed softly to himself. Poor delusional girl. Not worth her weight in stone something had to be wrong with him - or her maybe. But Sage just smiled and nodded as he lied. "He must be a lucky guy. I still know a better coffee shop around the corner. You could do better than Starbucks. But your loss."


Sage nodded his farewell and headed out the door and to the coffee shop he'd spoken of. It was a hole in the wall place, but it was a local haunt for a few hackers who couldn't afford to stop in at the den for any sort of privacy. Sage got a cup of black coffee and sat down in his favorite chair near the window and looked deep inside. Getting shot down hadn't done anything for his mood. First thoughts of his parents and then that he was almost shaking with need.

The processor in his mind wasn't like his thoughts or memories, it was precisely what it was in the outside world a device that processed 1s and 0s. It wasn't until Sage met Grim that he even remotely understood how it worked. Now it was like a hand, or an eye, it was a tool he could use to process information. He could make it function.

A hacker named, C11d3, once comment on a public forum that Ph453r's code was like a eight year old wrote it. Sage was 7 at the time so that was a plus. His code wasn't pretty, it wasn't the latest and greatest paradigm out there and he sure as hell didn't care about the latest trending design pattern. It worked, it was all that mattered to Sage. And no one was faster than he was. Neural interfaces were still an expansive thing, but none tapped directly into the brain, it was all surface manipulation, there was still a delay. There was only one hacker who might afford such a thing, but he was a jack of all trades, not just a hacker like the rest of them. Voxel was one of the strangest characters he'd heard of out in the ether. Sage thought he might have to reach his fingers across the ocean and track the man down - assuming his assumptions were correct in gender of course. But that was one thing he could easily be wrong about and often was when it came to hackers.

Lost in his own little world sipping at his coffee Sage never saw an older man sit down across from him with his laptop. "Sage, wake the fuck up!" The man kicked Sage in the shin, but he didn't even notice. Resigned the other man leaned back in his stuffed chair and opened his laptop and started typing away.

  Grim: Wake the fuck up Ph453r  


Sage blinked as the message flashed across his vision. The outside world switched back into focus and Sage frowned. "That was rude."


"You zoned out again."

"I know. I meant to. What do you want, Brian?"
It hadn't taken long for Brian to figure out he was a child when they first met. They didn't physically meet until Sage was 16. Mostly because Brian didn't want to give others the impression he was a pedophile. He wasn't. Brian taught him everything he knew about computers and hacking in general. Brian was his mentor and his only real friend. He had friends - at least that's what he called them - but they didn't know him. They didn't know he tracked their movements or followed their digital footprints around. He knew it was an invasion of privacy. He could get in trouble. But first someone had to catch him.

"Sage... Sage! Goddammit boy!"

Sage sighed. "What?"
He nearly yelled at his mentor. He was getting sick of his interruptions.

"I got something to show you." He stood up and waited on Sage. Sage just rolled his eyes and stood up and followed Brian out the coffee shop door.

Edited by Sage, Aug 10 2016, 09:25 AM.

The walked to the corner in silence. Sage wanted to look deeper into his head, but walking into things was never a fun course of action so he had to split his attention. Once well away from the coffee shop Brian asked, "You all right?"

Sage nodded. "Right as rain."
It was a lie, but it wasn't something he wanted to share with Brian either. His emotional baggage was not something the older man needed to see on top of his zoning. Brian would insist upon Sage seeing a shrink again. He'd done it before to the point that he scheduled a doctor to do a home visit. Which really only served one purpose - to piss Sage off. It had landed Grim a few shit hole assignments that came into the den. That's what the collective was for Sage - a place to send all the things he didn't want to do himself. Sometimes other hackers in the community did things on behalf of the collective on their own, but not usually. Sage was okay with that - just another aspect of his business model. Something he never thought he'd be - a business man, but basically that's what it came down to.

Brian took Sage to back to his apartment. The other man lived in a dive. He could afford to stay at the den, but he liked his digs he'd told Sage on many occasions. So be it but it was a shit hole.

Sage stood as Brian took a seat on the love seat that served as the only seating in the studio apartment and started stabbing away at his computer. Grim was one of the few hackers Sage let use the protection of the collective without actually being at the collective. "Sit down, dude, you make me nervous."

Sage looked dubiously at the red plush upholstery and frowned. "I think not."


Brian looked down at the grim encrusted cushion and rolled his eyes before flipping it over. "Better?"

With a sigh Sage sat down next to Brian. "Not much."


For the better part of two hours Grim jockeyed around a hidden server somewhere someplace that Brian refused to tell Sage. For two hours Sage watched as his mentor hacked his way no where. Two hours of wasted time...Two hours of his attention being on the screen in front of him instead of watching the periphery inside his head...

That was when Sage saw the flash of red that said someone had hacked into the system. He pulled up the logs and saw that it came from inside. Sage frowned and locked down the entire system. No traffic in or out. The collective would submit to his will. The IP would be found and he would handle it.

Sage saw through his eyes, but he wasn't exactly aware of what he saw. But he saw the fear on Brian's face and it pulled him away from the search for the attacker. "What did you do?"


Brian paled and Sage yanked the computer off of his mentor's lap and smashed it into the ground. "You will regret this, Grim."


Sage walked out of the apartment, only half aware of where he was going. He was on autopilot as he hunted down the attacker - one of the collective. He started receiving messages from members - fear, asking to help, some understanding, others were threats, some were nothing more than swear words mingled with a few other incoherent words but Sage was too busy walking and hacking through the firewall of the attacker.

The signatures were clear. He knew exactly who it was. And Sage sent a search out into his logs for the exact things he needed to put the man out of Sage's misery. He would regret the day he tried to hack into his server.

r3x was a two bit know-nothing hack who was a pedophile. Sage had been collecting dirt on the man since he saw the shit he was bringing through the collective. It hadn't gotten him in trouble and as far as he knew the man hadn't done any damage to any kid on the physical level yet... But he'd find the kicker he was sure of if he could get past the walls of the man's computer.

He was only moments away, r3x wasn't fast enough. Sage smiled as he walked down the streets and he breached the final wall standing in his way. r3x's computer was his. Sage sent a quick search through the computer and found the incriminating evidence he needed. He set the video to play in a loop on full screen on the offending machine and pushed everyone on the collective network into playing Galaga. More texts came in on his wallet.

Sage sent a quick tip to the police. Specifically to his contact since alerting them to his parents. It hadn't taken Sergeant Strong long to figure out who'd sent the tip. Sage hadn't hidden the fact as any computer forensic could track his signature down. Sage wasn't afraid of being caught. If he did such was life. He didn't leave breadcrumbs he didn't want people to follow. At least not on purpose.

With revenge set Sage put his attention back on his return home, and what he was going to do about his former mentor's betrayal...

When Sage arrived at the three story building with red neon letters claiming it to be "The Den" the cops were just pulling up. Sage smiled happily to himself as he wandered in the direction of the man just getting out of his vehicle.

"Mr. Parker. I assumed the message was urgent and you are just now arriving?"

Sage grinned. "I received notice and locked everything down remotely. There is no need for my constant presence."
Sage started for the double doors leading into the first cafe. Sergeant Strong followed with two other men. Everything outside was normal as could be expected with the cops showing up outside the front doors. No one was panicking, that was a good thing.

The man lounging outside the doors separating the two cafe's stood up and opened the hidden door and Sergeant Strong laughed but said nothing. "In here gentleman. I'm sure you will find your offender quite easily."
The black lights made Galaga look like you were on acid as the tiny little aliens shimmied down the wall that usually kept some sort of show running, but the network was down, and there was nothing but Galaga on any machine but one. No one was doing anything illegal. Everyone was playing a silly game. And everyone acted as if they were thoroughly enjoying it once they saw the badges walk in behind Sage.

The men in blue took r3x away in cuffs. The video was finally turned off and the images of a child under r3x's guidance was no longer being molested. Seriously stupid to leave proof anywhere anyone in his line of work could find.

Once the officers left and the doors closed Sage broadcast a message to the collective.

  Ph453r: Try to breech my server and you see the penalty.


Sage left the cafe through the stairwell that lead up to the residences. Most who used that cafe stayed at the Den. Others used it hourly or paid for unlimited monthly access and lived elsewhere. Either which way they paid Sage for his protection and he granted them their privacy to a degree. He didn't act on the information he found unless they made him their enemy.

Second and third floor were laid out in studio style apartments except for one area - where Sage himself lived. It was a regular studio style apartment with one exception, he had the only access to the server that ran the collectives protection and his home.

It was the only place where Sage truly felt home, even his comfortable apartment with the large windows, the Egyptian cotton bed sheets on an luxurious mattress didn't compare to the server room. It was grand.

Sage kicked off his shoes and locked his door. The walked into the server room and the door whooshed open letting out a mass of cold air. It was the one thing that Sage disliked about the server room. It was cold. But once he jacked in, there was nothing to compare it too.

A soft blue light covered the walls and were the only light source in the room. The server stood off to the side of the room with plenty of circulating air. They ran massive amounts of power and they could overheat instantly if the cooling ever failed. It was a painstaking chore, but Sage's ability to monitor it remotely made it at least tolerable.

Sage removed the wireless connection and set it neatly on the white table in a satin lined cedar box. The world felt smaller. He could feel his hands start to shake, his steps were slower than usual as he made the short walk to the center of the room where the wired connection lay. His fingers fumbled with the small connector as he sought the port behind his left ear. The connector finally found it's home and Sage felt the power of the server rush through his system, it was better than any drug.
Edited by Sage, Aug 10 2016, 04:44 PM.

The system flared to life as Sage opened his eyes. Every process running on the server opened into holographic windows reflecting off the blue lights on the walls. It was a visual representation of the things Sage saw on a daily basis in his head. Except he didn't actually see them. This was like a dream to him. Seeing exactly what he saw instead of seeing the 1s and 0s and the code passing through his eyes. This was what normal people saw when he worked. It was oddly refreshing to not interpret on top of work.

Sage put a tracker program on Grim. Everything he did from now on as Grim Sage would know. And if he was smart enough to change up his signature and handle he'd still find him - it would just take longer. Sage blocked his access to the collectives computers and then turned them back on broadcasting a new password for everyone to get back in. The collective was back up and running in moments with Sage behind the wheel of the server.

Standing in the middle of the room, Sage collapsed in on himself. He drowned out the world and focused on everything inside his head - on the server. Nothing else mattered.

Screens flicked by with a quick eye movement. Sage glanced at each of his friends trails. Nick Trano hadn't left North Dakota since his return from the CCD. Sage recalled the whirlwind war and the claims of magic he made - only now to be proven correct by his enemy. Perhaps Sage should call that to light. There were enough forums to so do on. Everyone had something to say.

Aurora's little brother Nox, was back in Moscow after a flight back with one Dane Gregory. Dane had been added to his watch list as he was a curiosity. There was no obvious reason for the two to become friends. Ironically Dane had met Trano once if only briefly. His piano playing was exceptional if he could only have heard the music that he'd played. It might have been flawless.

Connor and Ayden had purchased tickets to the US. They would becoming home and Sage wondered why that might be. Their brush with death in St. Petersburg surely had something to do with it. But still Sage hadn't figured out the why of it.

The magical registration now that it was fully operational was taking applications. Sage had an afterthought - he should have made a fake form and gathered the information himself leaving the CCD think it wasn't getting any registrations. That would be information worth selling!

And as Sage was moving into the next friend a news feed flashed on his screen. Africa. Sage tuned it out as it played in his mind. Continuing on with the next friend's tracks, but as the man with one hand spoke Sage became interested - tuning things out and focusing on things. He was calling for help from the average Joe to clean up Africa. While not a hero, it could provide a lucrative and legal means for the collective to gain a little credit in the world.

Sage smiled as he found the news room. It was hardly a challenge to get past their security and hijack every computer and the news feed. He let the world know the collective was behind one Jacques Danjou.

The moment the scrolling finished Sage's mind blew up with texts - the same - what the fuck are you doing, good job! great news. Dude, really? We are going global!

Sage filtered them out and replied to those truly asking questions and the rest went into the trash. This was his hive he'd do with it what he wanted.

After hijacking the news room and their feeds and everything went back to normal Sage did his research and found Jacques Danjou personal contact information. Private boundaries hardly impressed Sage if he could touch it through the net it was mostly fair game. He did have a few boundaries but they were few and far between.

But what Sage needed to know is how he could help. Where his skill set and those around him could be of use. So far the best thing they could do was beef up security it was nothing to get into places.

Sage saw the timestamp float across his screen it was late in Alexandria - he should probably get some sleep - eat. Be human. But he closed his eyes and fell back into the digital world. It took effort to bring his hand to his left ear and pull the plug. The system pulled him in each and every time and it was a conscious effort to leave even for only a few moments. The walk to the small table with his module on it was like torture. Every step was heavy - wading through thick mud, his feet getting sucked back into the moist dirt. His body felt heavy - his knuckles dragging on the floor even though he was standing upright with only a slight hunch.

The shaking started the moment he unplugged. It was pure hell putting the small module back in place. Sage almost dropped the delicate piece of hardware twice before it lodge in the port with a rush of power. The module did nothing more than transmit and receive wirelessly to his wallet. It was a simple piece but it was as much a part of him as the implant in his head. He needed it to survive.

Once he was feeling better Sage walked out of the server room. The outside air made Sage shiver feeling warmth for the first time in hours. Goose bumps rose on his skin and he rubbed his arms for warmth. On the table in his apartment sat a pizza box - someone had dropped off their left overs. There were only a few people who had keys to his apartment and Sage knew he had locked the door. The bathroom door was open and the apartment was empty save for the pizza.

Sage lifted the box top and found a whole pepperoni pie still warm staring back at him. He smiled as he sat down and ate a slice as he composed his first contact with the man he'd offered to help.

----
Message sent
----

Stomach filled. Message sent. Sage yawned - his body was tired his mind not so much. But sleep would come even if he didn't will it. So Sage got up and removed his clothe save for his boxers and climbed into the warm sheets and curled around a feather pillow before killing the lights in his room with a single thought command.

His body would rest, his mind would relinquish access to the primary operating system of his implant and his human senses would drift into slumber, but the mind would continue to process and power the implant. It took conscious effort to go to sleep. When it was first given to him, he spent days upon days wide awake unable to turn anything off, unable to sleep until human exhaustion took over and he passed out. It still took effort but it was much easier.

Sage's dreams were not like other normal boys, this he knew for a fact ....