Early morning commuter traffic honks impatient in bumper to bumper traffic.
Our overworked blue collar techie tips his paper coffee cup to capacity. His tongue reaching for a drop it never finds. Today's again just not his day. He tosses the cup with force, tapping the window lightly before shoving open his truck door.
He steps out into the deafening blares of car horns and shouting matches somewhere deep in the city. Traffic has a serious crash pile up this morning.. a spattering of crushed cars waft black smoke into the air. A faulty traffic light at a vital six way intersection, next to a freeway exit the stasis culprit. He looks to the control box surrounded by several other techies like him. While a couple tamper with it, the rest look up toward the streetlights themselves. They're just all on… red, yellow, green… weird. But not the standout. Each light is so bright… the heat emanating off of them causing heat waves. The techie's attention is snatched by a confrontation between two drivers a word away from pulling iron.
"IT WAS FUCKIN' GREEN YOU GONKFACE!!!"
"BULLSHIT CHOOM!! GET YOUR FUCKIN OPTICS CHECKED!! IT WAS RED!!!"
One snatches the other in a tussle.
Later in the day, our techie skids the tires of his truck to a stop. His hair and coveralls a damp, sweaty mess as he makes his way through a megabuilding with busted elevators up countless floors. Yet another emergency call finds him inside a shooting range temporarily halted among disgruntled regulars. The mechanical arms of the targets hold steady refusing to move. While patrons mutter amongst themselves, the heavyset, balding owner pulls our techie aside.
"Listen the things are hot as hell sure.. but they won't budge. Couldn't reset em, couldn't even turn em off." He leans in a bit closer, lowering his voice. "Checked the logs myself choom- those simple servos runnin' the targets n' makin' em move..? They were comm pinging the fuckin' automated weapon systems I've got wired in here for security… they even grabbed hold of the loaders… everything just refusin' to move."
The techie squints in disbelief… overwhelmed by both the day and it's events. He pulls his laptop's personal link to yet again gather the logs of the entire incident.
Back home at night after a long day finds him past out snoring on the couch. Only a couple sips left his beer before he was out like a light. His son sits in his dad's lazyboy.. a rare occurance. His little hand scrolls his tablet, looking for just the right pair of soccer cleats on sale he can work his dad into buying for him.
*BANG BANG BANG BANG*
A sudden knocking on their front door gasps the kid. He looks to his snoring father unfazed by the banging fist.. scaring him even further.
"D-dad?"
*BANG BANG BANG BANG!!!* "NCPD! OPEN UP!!"
The techie snorts awake wide eyed nearly falling off the couch as the banging continues. "I'm comin'!! GIMME A SEC!!"
He slowly strains to get his sore out of shape body onto it's feet.
Before he can quite make it to the door it's ripped open with augmented force, jolting him and his son. Two imposing NCPD badges that looked set for MaxTac promotions march in pushing the techie back toward the couch while barking orders. The kid drops his tablet.. tucking his knees into his chest shocked, feeling the adrenaline of his home's front door being ripped open effortlessly.
A white collar steps in with another dress shirted associate, completely detached from the sudden intrusion.
The kid looks up at these two whitecollars, both with enough prosthetic they hardly looked human. A level of cyberware he's never seen this close now suddenly fills his living room in the night.
"That's it. There it is." The lead collar says flatly pointing to the father's laptop. His associate quickly works to unplug it from all connected wires. Bundling them up, he's caught off guard by the significant heat emitting from the device as he accidentally drops it into an unmarked case. He frantically seals it shut as its lights flicker and the electronic locking mechanism whirs complete.
"H-Hey! What the fuck is all this!?" The father shouts while shoved to the couch by one of the badges.
The white collar finally turns to the father with his son sat in a shaking fear. Looking down into his eyes, he reaches into his pocket.. pulling out a small leather wallet. Stepping to him, he opens it up to reveal a silver badge.
"Bryce Mosley. Netwach special agent. Are you... Contell.. Randy? Randy Contell?" He corrects. "Softsys senior field technician and.. engineer correct?"
"Wha-? Yes, the very same... why the hell would Netwatch-"
"-There's an urgent matter regarding your work that you'll need to accompany me for now."
"D-DAD?"
"FUCK THAT! I'm not goin' anywhere with Netwa-"
He's punched in the gut with a force that rips the oxygen from his lungs. He drops to the floor as he's restrained and wrestled to his feet in a scuffle.
"Secure the remaining tech within the home and bring it with you. Two minutes." Bryce mutters flatly to the team. He takes a final look down at the techie's son… a look in the kid's eyes that say he'll never forget his face… as he turns to walk out the door.
"DAD!!" His little voice screams... hopping off the lazyboy, he races toward the badges dragging his father out of his home. With the strongest soccer kick of his life he finds the ganic ankle of one of the officers.
"AGH! WHAT THE FUCK!? LITTLE SHIT!" The badge shouts freeing a hand from his grip on the father to turn and shove the kid to the floor. He hits the floor hard with a thud and shriek of pain.
"DON'T TOUCH MY FUCKIN' SON!! YOU DON'T TOUCH MY FUCKIN SON!!!!"
"DAD!!!!" He screams, scrambling to his feet and racing back to the badges heading out the door.
A flood of light blinds him with a heavy woosh of wind as a Netwatch ariel vehicle prepares to depart. His pajamas flap in the wind with a tiny hand trying to shield his eyes from the brightness.
A heavy slap to the face by an augmented fist sends him flying back into his living room.. scraping across the floor with a thud.
"Fuck off kid." The badges grits… slamming the front door closed.
The kid trails blood from the mouth... a deep cut now on his little face as he struggles to get back up completely stunned.
"D-...D-Dad!!" He whimpers, scrambling back to the door. He struggles to yank open the dented frame.
Finally making it outside, his tear filled eyes look up to see the ariel vehicle a stone's throw away.. gradually leaving the neighborhood…. the heavy whirs of the departing AV masking the kid's feral screams for his father.
Late into the quiet night Gina's house rests soundly. Brian's giant frame drapes over the living room couch like a beached grizzly bear.. snoring in and out. His leather trench tossed over the sofa back… the muffled sounds of Night City alive and well off in the far distance.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
A blood curdling scream vibrates the walls throughout Gina's apartment. Brian jolts awake, flailing off the couch and landing face first to the carpeted floor. The sudden shocks fires off the lace attenua as his half asleep face scrambles to his feet, racing toward the noise.
He slides Gina's bedroom door open.. his face shocked.
"AAGHH!!!!" Audrey screams feral… violently thrashing about as Zaunya and Beatrice struggle to settle her. Her hair soaked in sweat.. she's been stripped down to an oversized tshirt and pajama bottoms.
"NNOOOO!!!!" She thrashes
"Audrey!!" The ladies scream in a panic trying to hold her.
Brian looks to his left down the hall and sees Carter racing over. He hears TuckTuck crawl toward him from his right with Gina jogging over. Gina snatches TuckTuck and cradles him as they all watch from the doorway in shock without a word.
"D-DO IT ZAUNYA!!" Beatrice pleads trying to hold Audrey down.
Zaunya reaches for a waiting syringe on the nightstand surrounded by a bunch of other medical supplies.
She jams the tranquilizer into Audrey's thigh… a squeak of pain as her body jolts.
Audrey's erratic breathing slows as she mutters incoherently… her nervous system forced to settle as her body does the same. Her eyes roll to the back of her head as she whimpers.. gradually passing back out, gasping as her head goes limp.
"Shh..shh… A-Audrey.. it's ok shh…" Beatrice frantically whispers shaking.. trying to rock back and forth slowly… her face filled with tears. Zaunya loosens Audrey's shirt, gently dabbing her sweat drenched body with a cold towel, her face riddled with panic.
A short time later, Brian stands alone on Gina's balcony… he lights a smoke and exhales slowly. The thick white cloud billows into the cold, late night air.
He hears the door slide open as he takes another drag without checking. Light footsteps approach.
"Hey." Gina gently greets, joining Brian at the railing looking out.
Brian offers her a death styx from his pack. She shakes her head as both continue looking out into the silent glow of Night City. Their tense energies rested in each other's presence.
"Your choom is… w-who is she?"
"....…...Family."
Shelooks over at him as he exhales another drag.
"She's our ripperdoc… someone I… I made a promise to. She was close with Zaunya's mom once upon a time."
She looks down.. then back out at the city.
He looks down… a gentle mutter.
"….I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for her."
"And after everything today?… Your people… you... you really care about them. Your trust with each other is..."
Brian looks over at her. She meets his eyes.
"I…. I've never seen anything like that. Not in this life- not in my corpo life. It's…"
He looks back out into the city.
"Scales either fall from the eyes or shut for good. Spend enough time letting people go… find yourself getting used to holding… nothing."
He looks to Gina's eyes.
"...I'll have no part of it…. not anymore."
The look on her face warms with vulnerable admiration in the cold night air.
Before she can respond, the patio door slides open again, pulling their attention.
"Ladies said they're squared away. Nothin' needed at the moment I guess." Carter reassures as Brian flicks his smoke down into the darkness.
He joins them at the railing, petite Gina stood there between two giants.
"This' a thick one huh." Carter's eyebrows raise.
"How quickly shit like this spirals… snowballs in a way you can't anticipate."
"We've been at it for a while. You sickin' Marcus on that corpo bitch back in Santo was fuckin' nova. Saw her face back at that maelstrom compound up in north north? Compared to her first profile? Tch.. chick practically looked from here."
"Marcus' a flatline." Brian dismisses.
"Regardless choomba… gotta look at the way you've played this for what it is. Could even potentially shed a light on the next move. I mean… crippled or not, who takes it to the corps at this level n' still walks away. Step after step left em diggin' themselves a hole we didn't even need to touch. Could only imagine what's ringin' in the streets these days since that choo explosion. When gonks catch up n' start piecin' together the rest well… tch… people see it. Whether we hear about it or not… shit like this…?… Makes the corps look less invincible by the day."
Gina remains silent, listening attentively.
"Klepping Audrey was the end of the road for me. Had no intention on makin' it back. Shit culminated… they saw the moves- made theirs I guess. Where the fucks the white collar calvary? The mercs crawlin' outta the storm drains for the contracts on our heads?... Dunno… still strugglin' to see the angles... the why- the... reason Petrochem didn't have-"
"-Cuz you're refusing to see it choom... Its right in front of you."
Brian and Carter look over at each other.
"You won." His eyebrows raise.
Brian holds his eyes on Carter… uncertainty… paranoia rested behind a face wearing grit. He sounds like Graves.
Brian looks back out at the city. Insistent.
"...Nowhere's safe now. Mercs will be on the hunt… private corpo funded contracts off the books… corrupt NCPD badges leveraging the law to track us down. Unknown netrunners looking for an easy score, list goes on."
"W-where's Netty?" Gina asks glancing back into the apartment.
"Gone… heard em creep out a couple hours ago."
"What the-.. where?" Carter asks glancing back.
"He went home." Brian dismisses aggravated. "When's the last time you seen him lay down a quickhack? Tch… runners…. somethin' he's not tellin' me… but he feels it too. Doors slidin' closed. Whatever doors he's closin' he needs his setup he was whinin' about."
Carter looks out into the glowing city. The subtlest change to his facial expression.. his energy. Gina picks up on it.
Brian shakes his head. "Kid can take care of himself… I've learned that.… he's... he's made me learn that."
"S-speakin' of closin' doors- I gotta delta."
"Huh?" Gina mutters confused.
Brian and Carter turn to face each other… a firm hug with a pat creaks their leather trenches.
"Comms open huh." Brian's eyebrows raise.
"You know it." Carter mutters.
Gina follows both men back inside to the warm living room as the temperature coats her skin. She notices Brian heading out to the exit behind Carter.
"W-wait, you're leaving?"
"Gotta take a walk."
She reaches for his forearm with a firm grip filled with her uncertainty.
"B-but! W-what about-"
Brian half turns back toward her.
He uses his hand to firmly clasp her arm holding his… a deep look down into her eyes as the pair exchange without words.
He finally mutters. A tone shes never heard before
"...Take care of our girls huh."
She lets go of his arm, but he holds hers steady.
She slowly nods… her voice soft.
"...I will."
Brian gently lets go of her arm… sliding the door closed on exit.
The steady whitenoise of the night hums on deep into it.
Netty stands high up on a roof... back posted against the building with head down… hands in his yellow hoodie pockets.
The high altitude wind blows the loose flaps of his clothing as he exhales a thick cloud of smoke. He flicks the cig… hand returning to pockets.
His yellow kiroshis begin to glow red.
Petrochem huscle sat in corpo wheels across the street from Netty's home yawns hard, checking the time.
"Ughh… christ choom. What time's handover supposed to show up?"
"Handover..? Tch.. didn't read the fine print on this one? Got no relief comin'. No one inside, no one at the back, no one on counter offensive. Its just us. Haven't heard a peep from the brass on it either. Sounded pretty shaky to begin with honestly… they just paid upfront this time. Got me thinkin' this contract we got's probably the last."
"WHAT!? Are you shitting me? Got a doll waitin' for me over on JigJig RIGHT NOW. Gahh… they better be payin' top overtime."
"Heh. Wouldn't count on it. Hear about what happened just outside the city line the other day? Entire convoy got hit. Words getting around its the same rats from that warehouse explosion back when. Hm… didn't know a crew of street trash nobodies could take such a bite. Let alone walk away after. From here looks like they've actually got Petrochem of all corps on their back heels. Everyone on active payroll's been talking about it."
"Tch.. whatever…. was bound to happen. Gutter rat's gonna gutter rat after all.. its like they never quit. Besides… crews take swipes all the time if they get balls up enough. Remember saka tower back in the day? Blackhand really made a mess."
"Hm. Yeah.... this feels different though. Far more pointed…. don't really see this one ending with a nuke roasting a megabuilding just for them to patch it back up…. more like-"
They suddenly hear the locks on their doors click, sealing them in as the engine starts up. The passenger instantly yanking on the door handle and looking to the driver.
"-W..WHAT THE FUCK CHOOM!?"
"S-SHIT! NOT ME! THINGS MOVIN' ON ITS-"
The car throws itself in drive… flooring the pedal to the metal. The corpos in the cab scream trying to yank the doors open as the wheels burn rubber up the street.
With hands in his pockets, Netty watches with a straight face as the car slams into a building wall at full speed a few blocks away, soda canning and bursting into flames.
He watches it burn for several minutes… waiting for a follow up.. any ncpd squad cars on response? More Petro huscle? Maybe the gonks inside the wheels had chrome preem enough to crawl out. Local network trigger any curious runner's sniffing around? Netwatch? Corpo? Ganger?
Nothing.
He turns to climb back down the building.
He crosses the street with a last look up the direction of the burned rubber and distant flame.
With hands in pockets, he looks up at his darkened home. A relic housing an entire lifetime that's shaped him… one he's since outgrown… looking up at it from the perspective of someone different…. an evolved person.
He hears his dad's voice in his head say something to him we can't quite make out. Brian's giggle spoon feeding him that next gem of wisdom in a way only he knows how follows it up.
He triggers his kiroshis for a scan. An entire honeynet riddles the building that he highlights.. getting a read of the various sources monitoring his place. No netwatch… most corporate Petrochem signatures from clearly junior runners setting up their first firewall. However, an entirely separate group of private key signatures catch his eye. A spattering of random runners from across the net have left nosy eyes alongside their mark like a divebar bathroom stall. Coded comments, fan questions, anonymous adulation.
Seems Carter and Brian were right… the city's catching up…. and his place is burned.
"Hm." He grunts.
With a single wave of his hand, he deads them all. Sliding open his door… he steps in… sealing it behind him.
He slowly walks through the darkness of his dead home.
On his way down to the basement, he stops himself mid stride at the living room.
He looks to his father's old sound system… hearing the memory he shared with Beatrice.
"Hey, we gotta get goin-"
"-Come here…"
He slowly rubs his thumb over the power button… hearing her giggle… feeling her embrace.
He slowly steps down each stair leading to his basement. Hearing him and his father's voice echo.
"….I love you son."
"….Love you dad."
He inputs a series of codes on the basement door keypad, beeping it open. Again sliding it closed behind him.
He looks around his father's pristine netrunning sanctuary now tainted by the time and remnants of Netty's own time spent down there with Beatrice. A warm smile takes over his face as he hears the voices of his friends echo.
"HAHAAA!!! NETTY'S PSYCHO CHOOM!!
"FIRST CYTECH N' BIOTECHNICA!! NOW HE'S CAMPIN' THE WALL ITSELF!?!"
"CODEFIEND LIVES FOR THE EDGE!! HAHAHAAA!!"
He stares down at his father's chair with a hand firmly pressed to the armrest… he closes his eyes.
He rips off his yellow hoodie. The loose fabric swooshing as it drops to the floor, revealing his lean torso and properly built upper body. The twin scars beneath his eye on full display as he types… prepping his father's setup. His chrome coated in scarred RealSkinn... a stark reflection of what this city has made him.
He strips down naked… hopping in the chair he reaches for the plug.
Before jacking in he hesitates… his mind flashing a memory he's never forgotten.
"Netaniel."
His father Nathan calls to him.
Liitle Netty removes his hand from the front door just before walking out of it… seeing his father for the last time. He turns to face him.
"Huh-? Y-yeah dad?" He asks. His father facing the stairs down to the basement.
"Promise me."
"Huh?"
"…...The edge…. The edge is where the view begins in this life son."
He half turns.. looking into Netty's young child eyes just down the hall.
He nods up... uttering something Netaniel will never forget.
"....Never fear the edge."
Netty inhales deeply… exhaling sharply sat in his father's runner chair.
He jacks in…. his body goes limp.
We find ourselves deep in the quiet, empty hums of netspace.
Spider Murphy's crew sits at a small round table on the second story of their net hideout. Her brown recluse spider icon engraved in the center of the stylish virtual table. Their voices bounce back and forth as they burn the midnight oil away.
"Tch… yeah, programs set… all well n' good. Still nobody to touch the damn thing though."
"Not anymore." Spider insists.
"Heh-yeah. But-can-the-kid-get-a-grip-without-his-head-poppin'-off?"
"Doubt he's even gonna figure out the worm. Might be too green."
"Gotta agree spidey… you tryna get this ganic from meatspace fried?"
"Tch… even Nightcorp ever had the balls to actually touch the-"
Their banter is cut by the snapping of fingers like virtual wisps in the wind. They all look over together.
Netty's icon stands before them at the top of the stairs. A smile of accomplishment on his face as he holds up the spiky worm floating in the palm of his hand. It spins and looks up at him… its body language excited with energy as it does tricks. Re-shaping itself at will, making it's spikes curl up then shoot out from it's body in all directions.
It squeaks and cheeps just like TuckTuck.
Spider's crew looks over with disbelief.. each scrambling out of their chairs and over to him.
"Hahaaa!!! HOLY SHIT CHOOM!! YA-BROUGHT-THE-WORM-BACK!? Didn't-even-know ya could do that!!"
"Wow- it looks.. friendly… happy?"
"How can it see you?"
"What's it doing?"
"Black ice." Netty finally chimes, watching the worm do flips in his virtual hand. "Choom of mine on the outside has this seriously preem piece of tech. A companion bot they got off the books from a corpo friend of theirs. Anyway, I tried to get a scan on it once and it zapped me somethin' fierce. Couldn't get a look at it's spec therefore no look at any real points of breech. Pulled the logs on that bot's output after I tried to hack it. Sure enough, they lined up with this little guy's antics perfectly."
Netty snaps his fingers, popping the worm out of existence. It re-appears on Riggs' virtual shoulder. He holds his hand out with a smirk as the spiky worm appears… not tampering with his internal runner systems at all. Now just a cute little data sculpted knick-knack worth fiddling with. Netty continues.
"Wasn't a one for one match but their source was clearly the same. Only major difference being… my choom's bot could see me… THIS little guy couldn't."
Silent reactions ring throughout the gathered runners through their impressed facial expressions. Riggs sends it back to Netty.. it wriggles on to his virtual shoulder looking at him.
"Little bit of time able to clearly see that weird code allowed me to work it a bit. Firstly getting rid of those damn interface distortions." Netty smiles looking at the little spiky guy. "Now he's pretty cute... friendly-"
"-How did you find this place again." Spider Murphy finally speaks up. Her tone serious as she steps past the other runners and stands before Netty. "Let alone get back in."
Her standing before him face to face coats him in an aura of intimidation, catching him off guard.
"O-oh uh… the worm." He giggles nervously, fleeing her eye contact, finding refuge looking at the worm. "Guess you guys should've given it to me outside of this place."
He raises the spiky worm up, with a look into her eyes. "Cute little guy ended up makin' a good key." He smirks.
She can't help but return the smirk with a look up into his eyes… she nods upward.
"Welcome to the plugs."
She turns to walk back to the table as the rest of the crew reacts.
"SHIT CHOOM! Nobodies-brought-the-damn-thing-BACK-BEFORE-AHAHAHAHA!!! WHAT-THE-FIVE-STARRED-FUCK!?"
"Heh, let alone tweaked its directive or made it a key" Another chimes impressed.
"Shit- I crushed mine."
"Haha! Same!"
A short time passing finds Netty sat at the virtual round table. Their conversation about net history acting as good background noise while he looks up and around at the place in disbelief. The quality of data sculpting on display is unlike anything he's ever seen. The level of precision and experience needed to generate some of these pinpoint accurate depictions of the real world is one thing. Having all this old net contraband code sitting before the Black Wall while being untraceable was a whole 'nother thing.
His brain snaps out of his marveling… picking back up mid history talk they're doing for his sake.
"All in the midst of the fourth corpo war I might add… know about that right Netty?"
"Oh! uh.. yeah. History's pretty easy to track when it doesn't change" He dismisses to a collective giggle.
"Well listen up then because its time to talk about what matters.This is when history starts to get dicey." Spider puts forth. Silencing the ping ponging conversation as she slowly circles the table behind everyone.
She waves a hand, bringing up a floating pink holograph in the center displaying images of locations and data of interest. The conversation flowing through the virtual room.
"In the midst of the fourth corpo war, after Alt got Bartmoss on the team with corporate backing, he became a shotgun in a room with butter knives. Some of the work we did at the time was truly sublime… smashing corporate elites more than deserving and well out of our normal reach."
Subtle cheers and hoots ring out from the elders in attendance
"Didn't much have the stomach for most of the runs he started doin' after locating Arasaka's soulkiller program. The shit I was hearin' him get into was just bizzare. Felt like somethin' changed for him at the time… I don't know… he was always so cryptic." Riggs adds.
"Boogeyman-of-the-net. Shame… never-saw-em-in-action." Lowpac chimes as a candid shot of Rache comes into focus. His tone and energy shifted among the atmosphere.
"Rache on the team shook Arasaka to their core.. as far as they were concerned he was a ghost on the net. It meant death. No team they could piece together were or would be able to track him down." Spider claims. Changing the direction of her pacing around the virtual round table. Netty's virtual eyes squint with doubt, hearing something off.
"Out of desperation, they pleaded for the aid of Netwatch. With a payment of an ungodly amount of eddies, alongside several future proof contracts of intertwined brand loyalty, the deal was struck. And after years of free reign running the net... rampaging through systems unimpeded… within weeks, just like that, Bartmoss was tracked down. The deets handed to Arasaka on a silver platter right next to a timestamped reciept."
"Tch…. corpo business as usual." Dorsey condemns with a light shake of the head. Netty opens his mouth to interject but is cut off.
"The first fragment. Arasaka didn't just cook up a team and find him all of a sudden. Netwatch was paid handsomely for a desperate lifeline." Spider claims. Raising the virtual datashard like hologram to the top of the data spread. Its neon green pixelated form slowly rotating as it absorbs all of the presented data below it.
"W-Wait-wait-wait h-hold up- what? I never heard of some.. Saka Netwatch deal. You're tellin' me they just… sold Bartmoss' location to em??" Netty raises with wrinkled eyebrows. "You guys really have a timestamped reciept of-"
"-Tch... Keep up kid. This is years alright… YEARS of Spider's personal tracing. Save the typicals for your own time. Shit would've never gotten this far with receipts layin' around." B@d dismisses with her arms crossed.
"Mm.. back during the land deed wars data scrubbing had a niche market.. a damn good one at that. You could make some serious scratch in it if you were good enough." Riggs adds.
Netty chews on the new information. For someone who was once well versed in net history with a group of chooms that were just as keyed in… this is different. His focus sharpens as Spider continues… raising the next set of hologramed intel.
"Before that, in twenty-ninteen…. Rache contacted me one night. I hadn't been out and about with friends in months by that time. With everything going on, Netrunning had started to consume the entirety of my life… but I raced home anyway." She stops pacing, catching Netty's attention as she bares the weight of her words.
"We met in our usual spot in the net... when I rolled up, he had something with him… it was a... a construct."
Netty's mouth hangs open with intrigue, leaning forward in his seat with eyes fixated on the hologramed dataset like a kid in sex ed.
Spider continues pacing.
"Told me he'd been working on it for years now but this was his 'latest iteration'. It was so small… frail... so young…. its code so simple it looked alien. It moved about without intention… almost like a raw nucleus… an empty husk.. grey goo he called it. Some of it wandered like it had no purpose… even fading in and out of visibility."
She shakes her head lightly… a slight raise of the eyebrows.
"He was... so eager to show me, I couldn't even get a question in. The tip of his finger turned red and he poked one of them. Theconstruct froze briefly.. then suddenly in seconds turned red… its movement filled with anxious twitches and feral vibrations. It was like… he had injected it with something.. some code- some…. program he made sure I never saw." All eyes in the room dart to Netty. Not a single pair wanting to miss indulging in his silent reaction.
"He shouted 'TA DA!' with the biggest laugh of accomplishment I'd ever heard from him.. it was… scary. Whenever he was eager often meant trouble followed close behind him." The little construct continued to violently twitch and distort before a snap of Rache's fingers set it back to normal. There it drifted neutral again... like nothing ever happened.
"Confused, I just asked honestly… 'what'd you do..? turn it rabid? What even is that thing? 'Oh, just a little something I cooked up looong ago. Been workin' on it for years!' He cooked up…? Years…? How I thought. I'd never even seen a construct like that… let alone code embedded in it like that thing had. I watched closer than he thought when he touched it.. the thing filled with HIS code… a pattern that I was more than familiar with over the years. As soon as he snapped his fingers.. it was all gone.
'You created this..?' I asked. He stammered so familiarly… so transparently... guy didn't have a socially adept bone in his body. 'Uh.. p-psh- YEAH! Wanna see me do it again? Here- LOOK!' he insisted. Normally in this situation I played along… but this time what he showed... seriously rattled me."
She stops her slow pacing, looking down… hands rested at her sides.
"I had to push… and I never pushed.
Another pause. Turning to face Bartmoss' hologram photo.
"No Rache- I said to him. THIS right here."
"I clarified... pointing at the small directionless construct wandering well away from us after whatever he did to it."
She finally allows her eyes to leave his photo with animosity and contempt.
"….The way he looked at me has never left my head. Always so egotistical he was… and yet.. so insecure.
"W-well… DUH!' He barked juvenile, his eye contact fled faster than his quickhacks… growing up, it was his clearest tell whenever he was lying." She continues pacing.
"I watched the thing wander away.. phasing in and out of sight as Rache rambled about the possibilities. I didn't need to hear em… I already knew the possibilities. He um…. he never mentioned it again… even when I'd occasionally try to poke at him about it."
Her voice carries a mixture of confession and relief as she raises the second virtual shard above the data next to the green one slowly rotating… this one neon red. It pulls in the presented data.
"The second fragment. Bartmoss didn't just create rabids… he had help."
Netty's jaw quivers in disbelief in the pause of silence gathered with everyone.
"Whatever those constructs were… they made what he did possible."She concludes… her voice filled with the same level of unease from the past. She makes her way back to the window.. a virtual forearm posted on the windowsill, looking out into the net.
Riggs rises from his seat and takes over. Netty doing everything he can to keep his virtual mouth shut as he watches her remove herself.
"Then came the krash… and what WE know as 'rabids' spread."He snaps his fingers, bringing up the next hologram. Walking them through as it plays out.
A cascade of digital explosions plume as datafortresses are impacted. "Data corruption as a result flooded through the net over the course of the next few years. Now, this data corruption included any A.Is that were connected to the net at the time. MANY of these a.i constructs that were once self-contained with their own data, security protocols and directives, were now corrupted as a result of well…. him." Net constructs bursting into fragmented data chunks. Entire net regions melting in a slow state of decay.
"Pandora's box was opened. Some of the darkest.. most primal manifestations of the human mind, created in passing by your everyday runner of the old net, now corrupted and melded intomonstrosities of unpredictable protocols and directives. Stray programs latch on to fleeing constructs… devouring their likeness slowly… painfully… desperately.
"A primal scramble for survival... eat or be eaten."The screams... the amount of smoky red is blinding.
Netty's heartrate increases at the sight.
"Everything from.. monolithic A.Is to ones you're barely able to see. Gradually devouring... absorbing into single constructs... now roaming wilderspace hungrier than ever. The net in true chaos."
Riggs cuts the intense simulation from the data display. Netty feeling able to breathe again.
"The data loss was staggering… the collateral damage… irreversible."
He brings up the logo of Netwatch. The only thing now floating just below their fragmented shards. His tone shifts.
"Sure enough, the waiting hand of Netwatch was there to be clung to like a well in the desert. They built citinets safe for the everyday user worldwide... lifeguarded for reckless runners wandering too deep into chaotic wilderspace." A spattering of Netwatch employee photos and data entries fan out. "Their demand and funding had no limits. Simply put, with shit getting worse.. their influence over said shitsteadily rose."
Riggs continues, highlighting information of interest on the virtual display. "While carrying this momentum… with the help of Alt, Netwatch wrotesoftware able to destroy the rabids tearing apart the old net and anything else caught in the scramble for survival."
His virtual hand waves as he makes his way back to his seat, another fragmented shard rises above the spattering of Netwatch data pulling it all in. This one neon white. "The third fragment… Netwatch sowed the seeds of fate leading to the krash. Till this day… no one on earth benefited more from such destruction."
"And with that... began the A.I shadow war of the net." Dorsey claims with arms crossed. Rising from her virtual seat. Netty gasps with confusion as his eyes shift to her.
With a snap of her fingers and quick neck stretch, the next set of virtual data appears below the fragmented shards.
"How…? Well… like any megacorp,Netwatch got overzealous with this new software. It worked great for a while… allowed them to... traverse some of the deepest parts of the old net without being ripped apart by the rabids." A spattering of different corporate black programs ripped from their databases lay in neat, organized virtual piles with thorough descriptions.
"Uncovering vast wells of lost knowledge and potentially salvageable processing infrastructure for expansion. For Netwatch it was signs of the next gold rush.However, this one trick solution they'd cooked up with Alt's help only worked temporarily. Their greed and indiscriminate methodsdisruptedthe net and a.i constructs far beyond just rabids.. even setting their sights on Alt herself." Dorsey waves her hand, raising a hologram of Alt Cunningham's net icon. She levitates tall among her followers of transcendental and not so transcendental A.I constructs. Their presence imposing even on a simple virtual display.
"As a result… a swift, brutal exchange amongst the chaos sent netwatch racing out of the deepest sectors of the old net… having to settle with the stalemate they were pushed back to.This stalemate... was hurting everyone. And in that pain, negotiations began…" The display fills with the various entities of interest. "Alt and her Ais, the most advanced and deadliest of Bartmoss' rabids, and Netwatch worked for a deal. The complexity of these negotiations continued as chaos and decay continued... running rampant andaffecting all powered entities with interests in the net.Then-"
Dorsey snaps her fingers again, all holograms on the virtual display vanish. Replaced by a single, imposing hologram. The Black Wall. Netty's virtual skin crawls at the sight.
"-Suddenly one day, the Black Wall went up. No warning, no traceable method.Effectively severing access to countless swaths ofonce familiar netspace.The collateral damage of this event... is hard to understate. Its sudden erecting meant the deaths of so many runners caught behind it. Some of my friends… some of yours. Again everyone, the trend-line, who benefited from this? I think its obvious by now." She slaps the virtual Netwatch logo right in the center of the Black Wall like its been deceitfully claimed. "Yet another avenue of personal responsibility for Netwatch to champion control of. A reliable flow of evil steadilycreeping through the wall's seams for them to 'fight against' and 'repel'. Even after being knocked on their asses with the wall slammed shut behind them… Netwatch knew how to gain."
Dorsey slowly laces her fingers together as the final fragmented datashard absorbs the virtual BlackWall and slowly raises beside the rest. This one neon black.
"The fourth fragment… Netwatch didn't create the blackwall.. at least not alone… but they had everything to gain… and still do." Dorsey concludes making her way back to her seat.
Spider slowly steps from the window back to the virtual display at the center of the round table. She raises a hand as the four colored fragments lay stacked atop each other, returning to her possession.
Spider and the rest of the crew look to Netty's overwhelmed face speechless. His eyes fixated on the four floating fragments… their vibrant neon colors casually rotating.
With a stunned gaze of awe, he finally looks to Spider staring deep into his eyes.
She squints… a slight tilt of her head.
"Questions?"