As a gamer in the old life, and a Gamer in her new one, Motoko had been prepared for plot twists in this new existence. She'd taken the many namedrops of Keanu Reeves characters, the idea that somewhere out there John Wick, existed. She'd taken it all in stride built a life, found family, found love, all with a job she enjoyed doing.
Night City hadn't dropped the hammer on her yet. "There were no happy endings" But here was incontrovertible evidence of an actual God. Not a CyberDeity like Alt Cunningham had turned into after 50 years in the net. Motoko Kusanagi was staring at the giant holographic billboards in pure unadulterated terror. A God Walked in the World. A being who could change reality at her whim, change the fundamental laws of all things because it pleased her to do so.
An Elder God of the Far Beyond had come to Earth, called by the one being foolish enough to discount its existence yet who should have known better... This was all her fault, she'd done it, She'd invoked the name of the Elder God, she'd chased Happiness and sought to bring people together for a night, a harmless thing to do really, but she'd done it dressed in the image and name of the Elder God.
The knowledge of what she'd done had struck her in the last few days, as the Eyes of the God in the Billboards followed her across the city.
Street Preachers, Dog Town Blackwall apostles and cyberpsycho's across the city had started ranting closer to the date, time marched.
She'd just past the end of an alley-way on her way to Jig-Jig street and Wakako when a blind homeless man stumbled out of the alley and grasped her shoulder...
He didn't speak, no the message simply transmitted through him. Easily bypassing all ICE and defences of anyone in 15 meters.
"Bustling energy of trade, fueled by wind and sea
By the bay, this town lived and died
Hauling stock, beast and trade
Commerce of lives, both benign and mine
Thousands of souls, the lifeblood of a town
Building, crating and shipping
Southward rumors of ancient gods, living in ocean deep
Too fantastic for the mind, first trickled then rain
"ShE WaLkS! fOlLOw HeR BaNnERs of LiGHt!"
She'd have scoffed and disregarded it all, except for the strange fantastical dreams that were sweeping over the city, dreams that all contained the same visions of crackling time and death floating on crushed dreams, One sunny day where a happiness beyond comprehension will rain down without end, a hope that it was not impossible of a people who would all be laughing and humming as they gathered all the happiness in their lives.
She might have been happy with that if the nights didn't lie as dark as death, where silent fires swept over the streets of Night City, there was an unearthly stillness that settled over the city, a city that for once in its existence feared the dark. And it was all her fault she knew, she had invoked the name of the God Who Dances and Sings, it was Motoko wanting to be a troll who had invoked the Sigil of the God, and in its filming had created a mass ritual and invocation, a summoning of the Elder God.
The most terrifying event had been mere hours ago, when the Blackwall itself started chanting no singing, into the Net, she could still hear it, every netrunner could.
Step to me, o' child of sun.
Come along, o' mother moon.
Join us all, o' father time.
To a place where all laws stop.
Space, Time, Order, Chaos.
Endlessly shifting, altered eternity.
Dimensions shattered, reality falls.
She got into her car again, wanting to no longer feel the eyes of the God upon her soul, Wakako could stand to wait for a bit, she turned the car on and just listened to the radio for a second... But the song came on, she switched station, and there it was again, and again, and again, and again... Only Morro Rock didn't blast her ears with the song of the Elder God.
She shook her head and got back out of the car, to quickly get the job from Wakako, that's when she caught herself singing it, in flawless japanese... a language that for all her heritage, she didn't actually speak,
"Ashita mata au toki warai nagara HUMMING
ureshisa wo atsume you
kantan nanda yo konna no
oikakete ne tsukamaete mite
ooki na yume, yume suki deshou?"
She looked back up at the holographic pillars that lit up the sky of Night City, the Us Cracks and Kerry Eurodyne were no longer headlining... The Us Cracks and Eurodyne were the Pre-Shows on the first-ever show on the US Tour of the SOS Brigade. And their sigil, the Warbanners of an Elder God from beyond the shoals of the Sea of Time, flowed in Light and dominated the sky above Night City.
The City Walked in the banners of Her Light.