\+/ Tales From Night City \+/ Chapter 44 - Lone Survivor
Netty walks up and stands next to Brian at the railing. "Hey man. I just heard-"
"Why are you here." Brian asks cutting him off.
"I uh- i'm trying to tell you?-"
"No... I mean, why are you here." Brian says cutting him off again and turning to face him. "The rat... what's your connection and why were you there that day."
"Listen choom.. i don't-" Netty says before looking over at Brian whose staring daggers at him.
Brian taking him to task catches Netty by surprise. He pauses for a moment and closes his eyes while leaning over the railing as Brian attentively watches him. Netty continues.
"I was just... followin' a bunk lead." Netty responds as Brian continues staring at him. He continues.
"My dad was a freelance NC runner... he did contract work for some of the city's top clients... Corporate executives, high level politicians, multi-billion eddie businesses, you name it. He wasn't alone either... ran with a crew that he grew up with. They were all dedicated to the craft... fuckin' preem work on the daily, no hiccups, no fuck ups... Their reputation for consistency and discretion were second to none... true ghosts of the net." Netty says causing Brian to lean back over the railing and take another drag of his smoke as he quietly listens.
"His chooms had kids that I grew up with... my best friends... there were... 5 of us." He says slightly raising his eyebrows while looking down and away. He pauses and takes a deep breath while thinking deeply as he recalls a memory:
Netty and his friends, no more than 13 years old are seen sprinting down a street laughing and fleeing from a store owner.
"GET BACK HERE YOU FUCKIN KIDS!" The store owner shouts as he helplessly chases after them. As Netty and his friends hop a fence, one of them quickhacks a powerbox next to the store owner causing it to explode and knocks him off balance as he slams to the ground. The kids hop the fence and continue to sprint down the alley.
"Since our dads were pretty much constantly plugged into the net or on the move we had free reign with a desire to follow in their footsteps... We all had our own cyberdecks by 10.. most of them being our dad's original models... It was kind of like a badge of honor whenever one of us was given one."
Netty takes a step back from the railing and begins to slowly pace back and forth in the alley.
"As we got older.. stakes got raised... We would constantly push each other to do harder... riskier shit... became this endless escalation of competitive drive between us... god they were so fuckin' good." Netty says as he pictures the faces of several of his friends.
"We'd learn of some of our dad's exploits and try to emulate em. Whenever one of us would pull somethin' unique or special off, me and the boys would work tirelessly to try n out do it. We elevated each other this way... kept us off the streets... During a time when we really needed to be y'know... our discipline and ability was on a steady incline." Netty says with his back turned to Brian.
"We never did it for 'our principals' or any of that ideological 'power to the people, death to the corpos' bullshit. Why would ya? It'd just be like pushin' boulder up a hill... No, It was for sport moreso than anything... proof was in the work. We usually didn't fuck with anything or... anybody while we were in there. If any of us ever started to get a bit too esoteric or agenda driven we'd often stamp it down and call em a 'hero' as a dismissive insult... consistently reminding each other of OUR code... why we do what we do and the importance of it. Running the streets of Watson was always unpredictable... never knew what was gonna happen next. I guess you can say there was a certain level of comfort in it... We were the masters of our domain after all. Gave us the safety to kick our feet up pretty much wherever we please." Netty takes a deep breath before he recalls another memory:
Netty's dad storms into his room making a loud banging noise on the way in causing young Netty to jolt and quickly look up at him. He grabs Netty by his shirt and lifts him up onto his feet while moving back toward the entrance to the door to his room. "You gotta split. Somethin' came up."
"I never bothered to ask what was going on... shit like this was pretty commonplace. He was never the best at communicating the things he really wanted to."
You silently see Netty's dad briefly explaining something to him before gesturing him toward the street and closing the door to the house in his face. Netty casually walks down the street to an unmarked, abandoned building several blocks away through the cold, rain soaked streets of Watson. He climbs down a ladder deep in the warehouse and removes a cover revealing a hidden door. A rush of warm air hits his face from all the hardware running as He enters to see his friends setting up for a deep dive by gearing up and sorting a bunch of hardware out.
"We had our own setup by then. Fuckin preem, top of the line hardware that took us ages to klep and gather... fully integrated links, seamless connection quality, discreet and formidable. Took us quite a while to dial everything in perfectly just how we liked it but once we did... It really was somethin' special. You don't ever really see THAT many runners coordinating together at that high of a level like that..." Netty takes a deep breath before pausing.
"It made us cocky...careless... felt untouchable... full of ourselves. More daring less... cautious."
"We had been working this Kang Tao datafortress for a while by then... Was kinda odd it had taken so long... we'd spend whole nights lounging in some of our favorite kick it spots in and out of the net speculating on it at times."
Netty then closes his eyes tight, recalling a memory:
While all 5 of them are plugged into their setup, you see what looks to be red lightning flash on the visor of one of Netty's friend's runner goggles causing them to short circ and explode. Netty's friend lets out a loud shriek of pain as his body siezes and tenses up. The tension in his body slowly releases and re-settles into his runner chair as you see blood begin to run out of his ears, nose and mouth. Netty and his friends still plugged into the net see his avatar explode into a bunch of fragments of code before disintegrating. This causes the rest of them to immediately play defense while searching for the source of the attack as their heightened awareness locks them in. One by one, as they attempt to flee and disconnect the same red lightning rupture happens to each one of them. Some of them putting up quick, unorthodox and strong resistence before ultimately falling prey to this overwhelming unknown source.
"I just...ran.. and I didn't stop running... Until... I saw him."
You see Netty slowly approach his dad's avatar in the net who has his back turned toward him standing still. Netty slowly reaches for his father's shoulder causing him to quickly turn around and grab Netty.
"There's no time. You have to go. NOW!" Netty's father says. As he pulls him in close his eyes quickly flicker blue causing Netty's to do the same.
"DAD!?" Netty says in a tone of complete panic and desperation.
"JUST GO!" Netty's dad says as he shoves him away nearly knocking Netty off balance.
"...Just fuckin go.." His dad whispers a final time as you hear the emotion in his voice. You see a tsunami of distorted, red lightning flooding toward them as Netty takes a final look before turning to run away.
Netty in his runner chair takes a deep gasping breath with his eyes open wide, almost as if resurfacing out of water after nearly drowning. He quickly begins to yank his helmet off along with all of his plugs while hyperventilating and hearing the various alarm beeps and buzzes of equipment. He rips the last of his wires out of the system before falling to his hands and knees while coughing and vomiting. As he slows his breathing down he quickly turns and gets up to see his friends laying lifeless in their chairs with blood seeping out of their ears noses and mouths along with gentle, idle smoke rising from various machines and wires connected to their setup.
"NO NO NO!" Netty yells as he rushes over to one of his friends; he instinctually reaches for his friend's wires before he hesitates to touch any of them. "COME ON!" He yells through his teeth while grabbing his friend's shoulders and shaking him. Netty takes a few steps back to look at his 4 friends laying dead in their chairs causing him to look on in complete disbelief as the emotions of the moment overwhelm him. You see Netty screaming but are unable to hear him as you see his silhouette frantically attempting to tend to his friends...ending the flashback.
You see Netty stood back looking over the railing as Brian rests his back on the wall of the building with his arms crossed listening attentively.
"It was a trap... they let us get deep enough into the dive before they put us between a rock and a brick wall... with the only way out being the edge of a cliff. Everytime one of us tried to disconnect, we were fried. Only reason I made it out was.."
Netty pauses briefly before shifting subject slightly. "He's still alive. He's still in there...I know it."
"Retreated into the net..? I've heard of stuff like that happening before but it never-"
"He's alive." Netty says sternly while quickly looking back at Brian with a serious face as a single tear runs down his cheek. "I know it... He was too good to just go out like that... I know hes in there. Somewhere. He's gotta be." Netty takes another deep breath trying to calm himself.
"The Black Wall hack was for them."
You see Netty fearlessly standing before the Black Wall alone deep in the voids of cyberspace... truly on the edge.
"It was a hack just like any others we had done... to send a message... it was about... taking back... control."
You see Netty raise his hand out toward the Black Wall causing the wall to shake, resist and distort in an intense fit.
"It was about letting them know that i'm still here..."
The Black Wall begins to cave in slightly as you see Netty straining hard while gritting his teeth with his palm out in front of him touching the Black Wall. As his palm lay pressed against it, the reaction of the wall only intensifies as the affects begin to ripple throughout the area surrounding his point of contact. The very void of cyberspace around him begins distort and glitch along with an intense shake resembling that of an earthquake lasting for a period of time.
"That WE'RE still here..."
The Black Wall then begins to slowly settle as Netty staggers a few steps back away from it, leaving behind his calling card of 'NTK' burned directly into it about the size of a large street sign... concluding the flashback.
"Letting who know..?" Brian finally speaks asking in a low tone. Netty looks back at Brian before turning and walking toward him.
"Doesn't matter... what matters right now is I think we're being tracked."