CyberPunk Solar Eclipse
Chapter Two: Like a Bat out of Hell
Disclaimer: I obviously don't own Naruto or Cyberpunk 2077 or Edgerunners. This is a fanfiction.
Arasaka Hidden laboratory (Nevada) 2068
The next morning came quickly, Naruto doubted he got more than three hours of restless sleep. His friends looked like they didn't do much better. There was a strange energy in the room as they prepared for the day, a nervous, excited but terrified energy. Hubert's jokes fell flat as he tried to calm everyone but the jitters were still there. After the nutritionally balanced SCOP (made to look like eggs and bacon) for breakfast, the children were gathered up by the Tech and Security staff and escorted to the cold Netrunning station that held their Netrunning chairs.
The chairs stood in a circle with their backs to a mass of tangled wires that connect them to the Cybermodem of the Arasaka lab and then into the Net. Naruto stared sadly at the mass of empty seats as the Technicians did last minute checks of the Interfaces and plugs in the back of his skull. The technicians were always so methodical and callous in their actions, they really had no scruples or misgivings about using he and the other children like this, so Naruto had no real issue with the fate that awaited the Lab Technicians.
As he sat down and waited for the Technicians to plug him in, Naruto looked over to his left and caught Lucy's eyes. The two nodded to each other subtly before focusing on the task at hand. Naruto felt the click of the cords being jacked into his Interface plugs before he felt the telltale 'falling' sensation of a Deep Dive.
A grainy world of Black, White and Red was what greeted Naruto when he finally 'awoke'. The sensation was more like a blink and you're in the Net really, but it was always a bit more jarring. Naruto glanced around seeing the White data construct that represented the Arasaka Data-fortress for the Lab sitting on pitch black void that represented the ground. Standing in front of him was their purpose and one of the sources of their pain, the Blackwall, an advanced Firewall created by Netwatch to separate the Pre-DataKrash Net from the 'new' Net and keep the rogue AI from invading. Naruto turned as he felt the sensation of being watched, Tobias appeared followed by Midori and Hubert, then Lucy and finally Yelena.
Hubert looked around the group before nodding and holding up three fingers. Naruto understood the reminder, thirty minutes until the attempt began. Nods from the other children followed before with a sigh Naruto moved towards the Blackwall and its ICE. Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics or ICE was some of the most complex net security used to date. Firewalls, intruder detection systems, defensive and offensive malware and DAEMONS all of these were used to protect yourself in Cyberspace but ICE was a cut above the rest. ICE was a constantly changing set of codes that needed to be perfectly timed to navigate firewalls and anti-intruder firmware and breach into whatever you were hacking. During their training Naruto and the children were taught that usually difficult ICE was only used by big Corporations, but standard ICE on most devices (including Cyberware) was weak and could be hacked in moments.
Chipping through the ICE was easy at this point, part of a daily routine. That isn't to say that they ever let their guard down but it was second nature to them these days. Pushing through the ICE and into the Old-Net everything immediately took a red-tinge, blocks of corrupted data floated through Cyberspace - a depressing memento of the catastrophe that Rache Bartmoss caused with his R.A.B.I.D.S virus. Naruto was pulled from his introspections as he felt a 'hand' touch his shoulder. Turning around, Naruto grinned as he met Lucy's gaze.
"So this is it. Our chance to escape, soon we'll be free." He grinned. Lucy rolled her eyes at his optimism.
"Or we'll all be dead." She drawled. Naruto sighed at her depressing thoughts. Hopefully once they were out of here Lucy's attitude would brighten up. Naruto smiled softly as he gently brushed her hand, "We're going to be okay Lucy."
Lucy smiled softly as she shook her head, "I really hope that's true." She murmured.
"Okay everyone, gather round!" Hubert called. Naruto and Lucy quickly joined the rest of the group as they stood in a small semicircle. One of the perks of a Deep-Dive is that the Lab Technicians had no way to see what the group was saying or doing during the dive, meaning that they could say anything without worrying about being overheard.
"Going over the plan once more." Hubert began. Everyone stood a little straighter and focused on his words.
"In Twenty minutes we'll rush the sub-nets of the Lab. Lucy and I will go for the Lab Technicians, Naruto will disable the camera's, Yelena will overload the turrets and Tobias and Midori will open all of the doors and gates. We'll run to the elevator in the hallway and then go down to the ground floor before running to the garage and stealing a car." Hubert said authoritatively.
Yelena nodded as Midori clutched onto her sleeve. Tobias huffed but also nodded as Naruto gave Hubert a cheesy thumbs up.
"All right we all know the plan so for now let's just prepare ourselves." Hubert smiled.
The final twenty minutes ticked down in a nervous silence. Tobias tapping his foot impatiently, Yelena whispering soothing words to a jittery Midori and Lucy staring off into the glaring red that comprised the Blackwall. Hubert though sat patiently, quietly thinking to himself. Naruto opened his hidden folder and picked a song from the album, as A Like Supreme began to play Naruto stretched out and closed his eyes. Sadly as the music bounced around Naruto's head he found it wasn't exactly taking his mind off of things as he hoped it would. Sure the music was drowning out his negative thoughts but the sense of anticipation and dread was still sitting in his stomach heavily.
Hubert hadn't said it and no one else was willing (or able, though Naruto doubted it) to admit that their plan had some holes. A lot of holes actually, personally Naruto thought that everyone was ignoring the elephant in the room because talking about it would simply end their escape attempt. The biggest flaw in the escape plan that Naruto saw was that they were assuming that the Security staff were all on the same Security Subnet as the Lab Staff. Naruto really hoped that it was true but there was the nagging feeling that it wouldn't be the case. Ideally Naruto was praying that the Security staff would be caught in the Neural Shock but he did have a back-up plan. He hadn't mentioned it to anyone because he didn't want to panic Midori or give Tobias something new to worry about, but Naruto did have a plan if the guards were still in play during the escape.
Naruto's eyes snapped open as Lucy shook his shoulder gently. Turning his music off and sitting up, Naruto looked up at the twelve year old girl. Lucy tried to keep a brave face but Naruto could see all the telltale signs on her face. Her jaw was clenched tightly and the skin around her eyes looked tight as if she was staving off a migraine. She was worried. Naruto gave a fake but hopefully convincing smile.
"Everything is going to go fine Lucy. By this time tomorrow we'll be far away from here and Arasaka will never find us." He soothed. Lucy sat beside him quietly mulling over his words.
"Where…will we go?" She finally replied, "Where could we possibly go to avoid Arasaka?"
Naruto hummed to himself as he thought, "Well we'd probably have to go somewhere they'd never think to look, somewhere quiet. Or we go the opposite route and go somewhere so busy that we could just get lost in the crowd." He finished.
Lucy nodded slowly before a wistful look tore across her face, "Somewhere without Arasaka…I wonder if such a place exists." She mused. Naruto grinned at the girl, "It'd probably be somewhere boring like Oregon or Idaho. Me? I'd rather go somewhere busy, where Arasaka could never pick me out of a crowd."
Lucy grinned at the slightly younger boy, "What will you do in whichever big city you choose?"
Naruto smirked as he raised his arms above his head, "I could become a rocker-boy and play in a band like Samurai." He joked. Lucy giggled as she shook her head, "You need a new plan, you can't sing." She laughed.
Naruto gasped in fake horror, "How could you say something like that? Crush a guy's dreams so easily?" Whatever Lucy's response was would have to wait as Hubert had stood up, grabbing everyone's attention.
"It's time." The German boy announced. Tobias nodded firmly as Yelena and Midori both shot excited looks at each other. Naruto stood quickly before reaching a hand to help Lucy up. The Japanese-Polish girl smiled as she was pulled to her feet, "Let's get to work Rocker-boy." She teased. Naruto grinned as he let go of her hand and followed Hubert who had turned towards the Blackwall, once they were on the other side they'd have to move quickly and enter the Security Net for the Laboratory before the Technicians realized what was happening.
Naruto suppressed a shiver as he passed through the Blackwall again. The red tinge faded away, replaced by drab black and white as the group quickly moved to the large black spire that was representative of the local Arasaka network. As the group approached the spire Hubert stopped, "You all know your jobs, do them quickly and then end the dive. Unplug yourselves from your chairs and we'll regroup." He ordered. The rest of the children nodded before with a deep breath they all touched the spire of data.
Naruto found the digital approximation of his body floating amidst the data streams and coding of the Arasaka Lab's systems. Following the security protocol's connected to the camera systems Naruto grinned as he turned off the camera's, Naruto grinned as he put firewalls of his own around the camera network. Naruto then quickly took a peek through the sole camera left online; The small camera built into the TV in the Guard's breakroom. Looking around the room carefully with the low res and quite frankly crappy tv camera, Naruto's heart dropped as he saw the Guards panicking and rushing about the room grabbing their weapons. The Neural Shock did not affect them. Unfortunately Arasaka had the foresight to keep the Security guards on a separate network from the rest of the Staff. Naruto grit his teeth knowing that his contingency was now in play and ended the dive.
Cold air and the sound of alarms greeted Naruto as he awoke from the Deep Dive, reaching behind him Naruto carefully felt for the cables plugged into the Deep Dive port in the back of his head. Finding the little tabs that kept the cords in place Naruto removed them one by one before sitting up. The Lab Technicians who had been in the room monitoring them were all laying on the ground, dead with blood leaking from their eyes and nose. Lucy and Hubert were already up and keeping an eye on the door with Tobias as Yelena helped unplug Midori. Naruto gingerly got off the Netrunning chair before he moved to the door. Tapping Hubert on the shoulder Naruto gestured further away wanting some privacy. Hubert nodded before he and Naruto moved out of earshot, Lucy sending them a confused look.
"I took a peek at the Guard's break room, they're still up and they'll probably be ready to move soon." Naruto declared. Hubert's eyes widened, "But the neural shock…" he began.
"I guess they were on a separate network." Naruto answered. Hubert rubbed his head furiously, "What do we do?" He mused almost to himself. Naruto braced himself for the conversation.
"I have a plan. I'm going to head to the security office, the Lab Technicians running it are dead. I'm going to lock myself in there and take control of the doors. I'll do my best to keep the guards away from you all for as long as possible." He explained. Hubert stared at Naruto wide-eyed. The two were silent for a moment before Hubert grabbed his hand strongly.
"Do your best to catch up with us as soon as you can." The older boy said. Naruto nodded solemnly before they were interrupted by a voice.
"And why would he need to catch up to us?" Lucy asked firmly. Naruto and Hubert both grimaced before turning to face the Polish-Japanese girl. Lucy and the others had been drawn over and were staring at the two questioningly. Hubert looked at Naruto for help before Naruto sighed and decided to just be honest.
"The security guards weren't hit by the Neural Shock so they're still up. I'm going to get to the security office and take control of everything. Hopefully I can use it to buy you all time and maybe even lock the Guards somewhere. Then I'll meet with you guys in the Garage and we'll leave." He explained. Lucy's eyes widened during the explanation before she teared up a little bit, "We should stick together! What if something goes wrong?" She cried. Midori looked horrified that the guards were still around, Yelena looked concerned and Tobias was gripping his wrist worriedly.
"Someone has to try and delay them, I'm the fastest so I can reach the Security room quickest and escape the fastest." Naruto reasoned. The others nodded reluctantly as they left the Netrunning Station.
Naruto turned around to his friends before giving them all a grin, "I'll be back before you know it." He reassured them. Hubert nodded, "I know, good luck though." Naruto smiled at his bigger friend.
"I'll be fine. Anyway, time is wasting so we should all move." The blonde reminded his friends. Hubert nodded before he pointed down the hallway, "Let's go." Tobias and Yelena both gave Naruto solemn nods before running down the hallway as Hubert followed them. Midori gave Naruto a sad look before he grinned and ruffled the eight year old girl's hair and pushed her towards the others. Watching as Midori gave him a last look before following after her friends, Naruto turned to face Lucy.
Naruto gave what he considered a reassuring smile, "I'll be fine, I'm the fastest so I have the best chance of catching up to everyone. I'll catch up to you, I promise." Lucy nodded rapidly before giving him a quick hug, "You better keep that promise." She threatened. Naruto gave her a thumbs up and a cheesy grin as he watched her slowly back away, "Naruto Uzumaki always keeps his promises." He proclaimed.
Naruto watched as Lucy caught up to the group and they turned the corner before the smile slid off his face. He had a job to do and no time to waste. Running down the hallways Naruto navigated corners and up a flight of stairs before he finally reached the Security office on the next floor. The door wooshed open revealing three dead Technicians and a few security stations. Naruto moved a dead technician from a chair before sitting down at the security desk, jacking his personal-link into the computer Naruto quickly broke through the ICE and took control of the doors before taking down the firewalls around the camera systems and retaking control. Cycling through the camera's rapidly, Naruto found the Security staff and did a quick assessment. There were only six guards armed with Arasaka 'Masamune' assault rifles, but that was still enough to be a serious danger to his friends.
Snickering to himself, Naruto closed all the doors in the hallway occupied by the guards and locked them. Switching camera's Naruto quickly found his friends and opened the doors in their path and just to be extra helpful lit up some floor lighting to lead them in the right direction. Swapping back to the guards Naruto's heart dropped as he watched a burly Security officer wrench a door open, presumably with a pair of Gorilla Arms. This had just become a matter of stalling them. Naruto snarled as he quickly turned off all of the elevators on their floor, knowing that it would buy his friends precious time. Swapping quickly to the garage camera Naruto accessed the motor pool and grinned, parked facing the exit was a Arasaka branded Chevillon Emperor, which would have more than enough space for everyone. Accessing it through the net Naruto spoofed the credentials for it using the access he now had to the Labs network. He smiled as the false credentials were accepted and the heavily armored SUV roared to life. Naruto left the car idling as he quickly opened the garage doors before swapping camera's to check on the guards.
As Naruto checked the camera's it felt like a bucket of ice cold water had been dumped over him. The guards had split up. Now in two groups of three, the guards were heading in different directions. One group, the group with Gorilla Arms, was heading up a flight of stairs. Naruto winced knowing that his actions hadn't been subtle and the guards definitely knew someone was in the Security office. The other group was heading to the ground floor, presumably to cut his friends off from the main exit. Thinking things through Naruto grimaced before opening all of the doors throughout the building, he and his friends did not have Gorilla Arms and couldn't force doors open. They'd have to hope that the security guards couldn't catch up. Realizing he was out of time, Naruto trashed as much of the security system as he could before unleashing a few DAEMONs into the system and jacking out. His personal-link retracted into his wrist rapidly as he turned and ran from the room.
He had almost cleared the hallway when a shout from the other end alerted him. There standing about thirty feet away was the Gorilla Arms Guard and his friends and they looked pissed. Naruto turned and ran, turning the corner and ignoring their calls to surrender. He had almost made it through the second hallway when he was startled by a loud bang followed by a few more. His heart leapt to his chest when he realized that they were shooting at him. The bullet's went wide and pinged harmlessly against the wall as he dived through the door to the stairwell. Picking himself up, Naruto ran down the stairwell as quickly as possible. One of the few things Naruto had never understood about Arasaka was how inefficient they could be, trading efficiency and simplicity for aesthetics. But Naruto couldn't help but appreciate it in this case, if Arasaka had built the lab to be efficient instead of aesthetically pleasing this escape attempt would already be over.
The Laboratory they were in was four stories and a ground level motor pool which led outside. The motor pool was accessible by a stairwell and elevator which both (obviously) led to the first floor. The first floor was the Lobby, the mess hall, kitchens and living areas for the Lab staff who lived on site in comfortable spacious apartments. The second floor held offices for administrative work and the break room for the security guards as well as the armory. The third floor was pretty much dedicated to him and his friends, their dorm, their dining area, the infirmary and the Netrunning room. The fourth and final floor was technical stuff, maintenance, power stuff and the security office which Naruto had just fled. Each floor had elevator access and two separate stairwells, one in the east wing and one in the west wing. It was a poorly designed labyrinth created with form over function. Logically having the security guards, the security room and the armory on the first floor would make sense but for some reason Arasaka chose not to do this. Personally Naruto thought that it was to show a 'friendly face' though why they needed to when this was a private and hidden lab escaped him.
The end result was that the building's layout was not helpful in the event of a security breach from the inside. Being forced to take the stairwells slowed the heavily armored Security staff while Naruto and his friends could take a different set of stairs. Naruto continued down the stairwell passing the doors to the third and second floors entirely before he popped out of the exit to the First floor. Sneaking down the eastern hallway as quietly as possible Naruto turned a corner only to dash back behind and stifle his shout of surprise. Peeking his head around the corner again did not change what was there. The other three security guards were standing around something, their weapons held in a loose grip. Naruto felt his eyes burn as he tried his best not to cry. The hallway was peppered with bullet holes and there laying at the guards feet was Yelena face down in a spreading pool of blood. Tobias lay on his side further down the hallway, the blood spattered across the wall behind him indicative of his state. Naruto took a deep breath to try and stifle the sniffles he was holding back before he ducked back behind the corner.
"We've got two of the brats so far, I know we hit one of the others." He heard one of the guards report. Presumably the guards could still contact each other over their closed Sub-net.
"No, I think the others are going for the main entrance, I know we hit one of the other kids though." He continued. Naruto bit his lip at the new information, someone else had been shot.
"We'll meet you at the entrance, you take the east wing and we'll take the west wing and meet at the lobby." the guard organized. Naruto stayed where he was waiting as the footsteps grew further away before he ducked out from the corner. The world felt unreal, almost dreamlike as Naruto slowly moved down the hallway and stopped at Yelena's body. He crouched down and touched her shoulder as if hoping she was faking it, but the bullet wounds on her back remained, telling the awful truth that Yelena was dead. Naruto didn't even need to get close to know that Tobias was gone, there was so much more blood coming from the boy.
"I'm sorry you two, I'm sorry I pulled the two of you into this." Naruto murmured as he stood.
Naruto turned and began to dash down the hallway running to the southern side of the first floor, the opposite direction of the main entrance. Behind the southern elevator was the emergency stairwell leading down to the garage, hopefully he would meet up with Lucy, Hubert and Midori there and they could flee.
As Naruto reached the top of the stairwell loud gunshots echoed throughout the building. Naruto flinched as he turned around looking down the hallway. Loud footsteps echoed down the hallway followed by more gunshots.
"What do I do? I can't actually do anything to stop them." Naruto thought to himself. Hardening his heart Naruto knew he had to stick to the plan, his friends would make it to the garage and if he was already in the driver's seat of the SUV he had prepared they could leave quickly. Small footsteps echoed down the stairwell as Naruto took the stairs two at a time before he finally reached the ground floor. Unlike the rest of the lab the ground floor motor pool was not painted and decorated. Plain unmarked concrete and steel greeted Naruto as he quickly ran past Arasaka marked cars and up to the Emperor that he had left idling. Knowing that he couldn't possibly reach the pedals and steering wheel at the same time Naruto decided that manual control was overrated and ducked down to mess with the center console. Finding the right plug Naruto used his personal-link to jack into the vehicle and take control. This way he could control everything digitally and stay hidden. Staring at the other cars Naruto came to a quick decision and connected to the network in the garage and quickly unleashed a DAEMON or two into each of the other vehicles so the guards couldn't follow.
Keeping his head down so he wouldn't be seen through the windows, Naruto patiently waited, his stomach a knot of anxiety as he tried unsuccessfully not to think of the worst case scenario. Tobias and Yelena were gone, dead. Someone else had been hit at least according to the guards he overheard, hopefully it was just a graze or something minor. The idea of Hubert, Lucy or Midori laying in a pool of blood quickly shot through his mind sending an ice cold spike of fear through his heart. They'd be okay, any moment now they'd come down the stairwell and the group would be home free. Steps echoed down the stairwell as Naruto turned and peeked his head up only for his hopes to die as three familiar guards entered the garage. Gorilla Arms swept the area quickly as Naruto ducked down.
"There should only be a couple left." Gorilla Arms said, "The two we got in the lobby means there are only two left." Naruto's heart felt heavy as the man's words registered. They got two more. That means only he and one of his friends were left. No-one else was going to make it. A shout snapped Naruto out of it as one of the guards noticed him. Knowing that he was out of time and options, Naruto ducked back down as gunfire pelted the armored SUV.
Naruto muttered a quick prayer that whoever was still alive would escape and floored it. The Chevillon Emperor roared to life as it tore out of the garage like a bat out of hell. He peeked his head up and watched as the guards continued to fire pointlessly at his SUV. The Emperor tore down the road, the black-painted building of the Laboratory and the white of the Arasaka Corporations Logo passing him by as the SUV sped down down the road out the opened gates and through the lowered boom gates to the highway and to freedom.
Authors Note:
I had a lot of issues with this chapter to be honest. We never get too much information on how Netrunning and ICE works in Cyberpunk. So I had to improvise and build on whatever info we are given. Also if the children's plans or actions seem strange I personally think it's in character. In Edgerunners Lucy says that the children were geniuses and savant's so that would explain how mature they sound, admittedly they are still children which is why I made sure that there were holes in the plan too. Now as for the poll I posted. There was a huge amount of votes and I've thought about it a lot. So I think I am going to put David in the story. Naturally I am aiming for a Naruto/Harem which will include Lucy so I'm still figuring out whether I'll make it David/Rebecca or maybe I'll make David date Sasha the netrunner from the Let You Down music video. Also let me know what you'd like to see in this story, naturally I have my own plans and ideas but I always appreciate your thoughts. Anyway thanks for all the support, i'll be working on the next chapter immediately so keep an eye out!
