Fueling His Fire

[Sage]

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.