04-14-2017, 12:01 AM
The wristcom's holographic display flickered rapidly with changing information, adding a faint blue tint to the room's flat, featureless light.
Kelly looked at the numbers and frowned. By the common reckoning, he'd been unconscious for over a month while his body healed.
I was almost entirely dead, but even so - my recovery shouldn't have taken that long. Maybe it has something to do with my returning abilities? Returning powers have temporarily weakened me before...
He sent the computer a mental command, splitting the dataverse-window into two, then three separate displays. He called up an aggregated news-feed, accessed his alternate identity's PepsiCo corporate account, and ran a search for specifically Darkshire-related stories posted within the last four weeks - then he clasped his calloused hands behind his back and began to read.
Darkshire had indeed won the battle, and by a comfortable margin at that. It wasn't a rout by any means, but the city's defenses had repelled the assault without sustaining crippling losses, and as far as Kelly was concerned that was an acceptable outcome. Most of the current Darkshire news items which had made it to the dataverse seemed to be focused on the reconstruction and memorial efforts.
The broader state of the Omniverse was, as always, chaotic and violent, colorful and just plain weird. There was a reported uptick in gang violence on Coruscant's lower tiers which caught the psychic's attention, and somebody had vandalized the standing stones on the Camelot side of the Kingdom's Nexus-gate, but a cursory glance didn't reveal anything else remarkable against the general background noise of mundane interversal goings-on, sensational strangeness and bizarre carnage. Dracula was quiet, the Kingdom and the Empire still hated each other, some stormtroopers had been killed in the Nexus and the weather was sunny in Costa del Sol.
Satisfied that his new world hadn't fallen apart while he was sleeping, Kelly moved on.
Alan Mayhew's corporate inbox contained precisely three items: the latest PepsiCo Executive Newsletter, a non-binding invitation to a gala-event that he had already missed (but would have preferred to attend), and an inquiry from outside the corporate intranet, forwarded by the junior VP of Operations for Coruscant. The subject line read simply 'Primes Needed To Combat Emergent Threat'.
Kelly brushed a stray lock of hair out of his face and dismissed the other two windows, the holograms winking out of existence as abruptly as they'd appeared. A simple two-fingered gesture expanded the remaining window until it was a meter-and-a-half square. Satisfied, the traveler took a step back and opened the message, scanning rapidly down the page.
He grimaced. His forehead knotted, his eyes sinking deeper int their shadowy caves.
The psychic crossed his arms and rubbed his chin thoughtfully with one hand, glaring at the two-dimensional projection which hung motionless before him in the empty room. It seemed that both his introspective retreat and the laying of his long-term strategic foundations were going to have to be delayed for just a little while longer.
Kelly looked at the numbers and frowned. By the common reckoning, he'd been unconscious for over a month while his body healed.
I was almost entirely dead, but even so - my recovery shouldn't have taken that long. Maybe it has something to do with my returning abilities? Returning powers have temporarily weakened me before...
He sent the computer a mental command, splitting the dataverse-window into two, then three separate displays. He called up an aggregated news-feed, accessed his alternate identity's PepsiCo corporate account, and ran a search for specifically Darkshire-related stories posted within the last four weeks - then he clasped his calloused hands behind his back and began to read.
Darkshire had indeed won the battle, and by a comfortable margin at that. It wasn't a rout by any means, but the city's defenses had repelled the assault without sustaining crippling losses, and as far as Kelly was concerned that was an acceptable outcome. Most of the current Darkshire news items which had made it to the dataverse seemed to be focused on the reconstruction and memorial efforts.
The broader state of the Omniverse was, as always, chaotic and violent, colorful and just plain weird. There was a reported uptick in gang violence on Coruscant's lower tiers which caught the psychic's attention, and somebody had vandalized the standing stones on the Camelot side of the Kingdom's Nexus-gate, but a cursory glance didn't reveal anything else remarkable against the general background noise of mundane interversal goings-on, sensational strangeness and bizarre carnage. Dracula was quiet, the Kingdom and the Empire still hated each other, some stormtroopers had been killed in the Nexus and the weather was sunny in Costa del Sol.
Satisfied that his new world hadn't fallen apart while he was sleeping, Kelly moved on.
Alan Mayhew's corporate inbox contained precisely three items: the latest PepsiCo Executive Newsletter, a non-binding invitation to a gala-event that he had already missed (but would have preferred to attend), and an inquiry from outside the corporate intranet, forwarded by the junior VP of Operations for Coruscant. The subject line read simply 'Primes Needed To Combat Emergent Threat'.
Kelly brushed a stray lock of hair out of his face and dismissed the other two windows, the holograms winking out of existence as abruptly as they'd appeared. A simple two-fingered gesture expanded the remaining window until it was a meter-and-a-half square. Satisfied, the traveler took a step back and opened the message, scanning rapidly down the page.
He grimaced. His forehead knotted, his eyes sinking deeper int their shadowy caves.
The psychic crossed his arms and rubbed his chin thoughtfully with one hand, glaring at the two-dimensional projection which hung motionless before him in the empty room. It seemed that both his introspective retreat and the laying of his long-term strategic foundations were going to have to be delayed for just a little while longer.