The following night… Beep after beep rocks slow and steady as the entire crew rests unconscious in Audrey's clinic. Wrapped in layers of synthgauze... most of them looking like cocooned butterflies, similar to Zaunya. Their various limbs and muscles occasionally writhe and twitch subtly under seeping coverage as their chrome integration settles with their flesh. Audrey kills the AC and allows the warmth to again settle back in... steadily regulating their temperatures and tending to their various unconscious needs all day. The rain checks in for the night... the pitter patters tapping the warm windows with pressing curiosity as to what's going on inside.
Netty, The Kid... Laying in his cocoon… is in a deep sleep. Feels like this is the first time in a long time, his mind has been given an escape… A way of finally being able to shut the servers of his world down.
The sensation is short lived as a dream carrying a memory of recent events strong arms its way into his mind:
Netaniel watches the merc back at The Vanderbilt blow his own brains out right in front of him. He watches him drop to the floor lifeless as blood begins to slowly run down his cheek like a teardrop from his fresh sliced skin, just below his left eye. He assists Carter to his feet, greeted with a shower of praise as they both turn to head back to their wheels. Netty drops to the railroaded dirt motionless with both his mouth and eyes wide open. His dilated pupils completely black out his irises as Carter desperately tries to shake him awake before rising in search of an attacking target.
During this time… Netty gasps deeply… suddenly awake… now conscious in a realm completely unfamiliar to him.
This wasn't the familiar red and pinkish Netscape of a deep dive that he was used to… nor the pearly gates of an afterlife so many are promised. This was something different entirely. Metaphysical reaction… sensory sensations… they're all gone. Instead… feeling a… feelingless feeling of… pure consciousness. The digital looking environment glowed gently with a neon blue. It was small… no bigger than the size of a basketball court that allowed him to walk amongst it.
As he gazes about the place confused… the sudden, familiar voice of a woman fades in to his hearing and sounds clear as day.. echoing into existence. Almost as if the thoughts he's hearing are his very own.
"W-what have you done?-
"-You're one of the few people I trust out there… never let them tie you down."
"-I'll see…? I'LL FUCKING SEE!?!!!"
"-WHAT DID YOU DO!!!??!! WHAT DID YOU DO!!!! WHY!!!!!"
"y-you k-killed them.. you… you killed all of them!!"
"I TRUSTED YOU!!! Y-YOU SAID YOU LOVED ME!!!!
I TRUSTED YOU!!!! I TRUSTED YOUUU!!!!!!!!!!"
The intensity of her screams vibrate him to his core. The very space around him trembles at her roar. A roar brought about by death and betrayal… emotion and instinct sink into a psyche of savored memories and withered pasts present for purposes unknown but all too felt. A psychotic and shit hand she was dealt by absolute malice that she felt. Ripping.. tearing at the fabric of her fatal reality tightly and tactically intertwined by the finality of a mad man bereft of morality. Bereft of courage. Bereft of a spine… a shred of honor you will not find… She bared witness to Bartmoss' mind unwind. Now back. An attempt to deliver a sliver of what SHE would consider retribution or at the very least... Restitution. Netty's tightly shaken nerves caused by the screaming echoes is abruptly halted by a firm, yet gentle hand placed on his shoulder... causing him to jolt and turn around.
"WHAT THE FUCK!!?" He screeches taking a step back away from the touch.
"It's ok… you're ok. Don't worry.. you're… you're alive." Spider Murphy says uncertain.. but gently.
Netty quickly glances at Spider stood in front of him… hued in blue just like himself.. then around at the neon blue, digital environment around them. Every emotion he feels… every thought he has… felt more like a depiction of those things as apposed to the reality of them. Was this sleep paralysis? Death in the afterlife? That coupled with some of the thoughts and sensations of Spider Murphy's… now forcibly intertwined with his.
"Don't … feel alive." He responds trying to calm himself and get his bearings. One second he's with Carter in a trainyard… and… now he's here.
"This…. This isn't real… this is… gotta be a dream. Gotta be a-"
"-It's the deep subconscious. Recesses of the human mind previously thought to be untraversable. For the time being…. ours are connected."
"That... that s-screaming…. y-your screaming… It… It was like… fire-" His voice shakes, overwhelmed.
"Remnants… thoughts of time's past that I'd… rather not get into."
"Assuming they're... fresh on your mind…? Considering that's the first thing I heard when I woke up in here."
"You've been ignoring my communications... leaving me whispering in the wind."
"Got a lot going on these days… Not much of a- wait! H-HOW THE FUCK DID YOU DO THIS?? WHAT THE FUCK EVEN IS THIS PLACE??"
"I told you it's the-"
"-DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT THE FUCK I WAS DOING?! What if I was in the middle of climbing somethin'!! or… or swimmin' in a pool!?"
"You did great from what I can see." Her eyes flicker blue briefly as she skims his executed code from when he was at The Vanderbilt. "Your ability to place and execute quickhacks is….. sharp."
"Are you tellin' me you can just… enter anyone's mind!???"
"Not just anyone's." She scoffs and giggles. "Remember our first meeting? First contact..? Gotta be careful what programs you're executing and where. Back doors can be a real bitch."
He looks down at his hands and the rest of his cyan blue body.. taking a moment to try and familiarize himself with the lack of sensation and just pure consciousness.
"Ya gotta stop doin' this to me choom.." Netty exhales. "What are you-"
"-Your father Nathan… I think he's… he's alive."
"WHAT?!" Netty says with vindicated eyes wide open in disbelief, taking a step toward her.
"Not just him… I have strong enough reason to believe that… there's more like him…. friends of mine even-"
"-Spider… are you-"
"-Maybe even… friends of yours"
She hears his mind scoff at the idea. Impossible. He saw them die. He focuses in on the former.
"Spider… if my father is alive-"
"-A friend of mine that I love… and am sure you know the story of... Alt Cunningham… someone I… promised I'd do anything for once upon a time-" She shakes her head lightly before continuing.
"The scattered fragments of her being… forgotten yet not lost to time… I've spent years trying to find them… piece them together… to save her. The rest of what's left of her… along with… countless other runners is beyond the wall."
"The rest of her…? Beyond the wall…? B-Beyond the wall is death." He mutters uneasy
"For decades that was the case… however, like the snows of yesteryear... no longer."
"Hm.. true to form for you.. and… honestly incredible that I'm actually barin' witness to that patented steelo of yours but… spare me the historical poetics.. how is that possible.. what are you talkin' about?"
"How much do you know about the net. I mean the old net… what there used to be."
"Tch.. we talkin' about the Iharra Grub…? The 70 somethin' plus tainted by the krash..? The net regions chooms like me dream about n' never got to touch..? Or the countless subnets we've been confined to till this day."
"Guess you know your history. Good. You'll need to… but the places I'm talking about don't necessarily encompass either. Far less understood… rarely ventured if at all. Wilderspace."
"Wilderspace..?" He repeats confused
"As I mentioned before… vast swaths of long abandoned net nowhere… areas of cyberspace home to no prying eyes or oversight. Bartmoss' rabids? They didn't just 'infect' the old net… they made it their home."
"Made it their home..? You say that as if… they live."
Spider doesn't respond.
Netty digs deep into his recollection.. having been pretty far removed from the topic over time. He glances away before looking back at her.
"So… rabids didn't just infect dormant or active military soft and installations during the war… they… live..? In the old net's… wilderspace?"
"More like confined…" She pauses and looks away with a fear that Netty can directly feel himself in this place. He hears her horrored wallows whale with adrenaline.
"More like confined…" She repeats.... another pause. "Years of-"
"-Confinement." He picks up thinking deeply. "So they've been what…? Trying to…. Get out?"
She doesn't respond.
"Would explain some of the past rumors circlin' around. Honestly felt like most of the stuff I was hearin' was just people throwin' shit at the wall and just seeing what sticks."
"No rumors here. Rabids is a pretty apt name… think about... what having incredible power while forced into confinement would do to you overtime… years even. Its… unlike anything I've ever encountered. The combined intensities of all human emotion… forced into pressurization with no outlet… no escape… with its hands now able to grasp something coming in from the outside?"
"Y-You've encountered them...? Are you-"
"-That's all you're getting from me. Now its your turn. The Black Wall. How did you do… what you did. I've spent hours scraping the input without any deets on the output. There's no precedent in existence that would suggest-"
"-Listen…" He looks down and away... a light shake of the head. His look flustered.
"When I… touched the Black Wall… I felt...… an….... Immediate pressure.."
"Pressure?" Spider turns her full attention to him... a tone of hope.
"It... it grabbed me… by the throat. It was like this… this absolute pressure… instantaneously onset. Like the weight of a fuckin' megabuilding was suddenly placed around my neck."
She doesn't respond. Continuing to stare at him in disbelief. He continues.
"I felt it…. felt it Squeeze. But it...... it stopped." He wrinkles his eyebrows looking down, then back up at her. "I felt it stop… It stopped when I didn't stop… I continued with my input and it just… suddenly released the pressure. Almost like… it decided to" He concludes uncertain.
"When you felt it… Why didn't you stop?"
Netaniel doesn't respond... taking a few steps away with his back turned. They share a brief pause as she contemplates.
"There's only so many reasons that I can-"
"-Maybe because I didn't want it to stop alright?" He snap responds, turning back around. She suddenly hears the echoes of Netty's various friends laughing and joking together before they fade behind Netty tamping them down. "What I felt… that power that I felt… it didn't even feel like something measurable. Hard to even conceptualize the sensation… I just use megabuilding because, well-"
"-So you have felt it... The absolution of its power… and yet here you stand."
"Stand huh…" He mocks glancing around the space of the deep subconscious. "Don't think I'd consider THIS that."
"Look. The fact that you're not a pile of scop sunken 1s and 0s after that isn't just a fluke. Nothing that happens with the wall is random. For whatever reason you're….. still here. Unharmed."
She hears his mind scoff at the idea of him being unharmed. She feels a sudden tension course through her body before it abruptly releases. Giving her an idea of Netty's ability to control himself under pressure… just like his father.
"All this to say what Spider. You're not telling me what the-"
"-The Black Wall isn't bound by any sort of rigid code structure or directive. It operates with its own agency."
"So you're saying its…. Its sentient?" He says in awe as a runner... combined with fear as a street kid.
She doesn't respond.
Netty begins to connect some dots in his head. "Makes sense I mean… I mean, what I felt definitely wasn't just some fuckin' directive."
"I have a true way to get past it." She abruptly puts forth.
They silently gaze at each other with a mirrored look in the eyes. Their instincts in sync know exactly what that means. Edgerunners don't think otherwise. You can cut the intensity of the moment following that statement with a knife.
"Past it to where."
"Doesn't matter right now. What matters is the process.. and who's executing. Replicating it won't be easy and can't just be done by anyone."
"And you want me to… what? Just take a stroll with you past the Black Wall-"
"-Wanna see your dad, don't you." She jabs forth like a dangling carrot.
He scoffs. "-I mean tch… assuming that's even possible... how can you even-"
"-You still feel him… I know you do. Just like I can still feel Alt.... and even Rache."
Netty doesn't respond… instead looking to Spider with an expression of impossibility. A lot to take in considering what he has going on in life currently. A building juggling act of death with no pick ups or second chances. She both feels his intention... and sees his response.
"Need more time to prepare but… well….. you're in?"
"You're in?"
"You're in?"
Spider's question echoes as we woosh back into reality. The bright afternoon sun beams down on the alleyway out back behind Audrey's clinic. Netty snaps out of his tranced thinking after hearing Brian's excited voice ring out alongside everyone's cheers and laughter.
"Right, Netty, gimme cross, hook, elbow."
Netty clinches his fists tightly with no shirt on.. showing off his abs and lean muscle definition cascading down his lanky frame now bulked up from Brian's training regiment. His various implants grace his RealSkinn, and weave perfectly with his ganic flesh as sweat drips down his toned and hardened body, catching Beatrice's eye as she gazes hungrily. He executes the combo with sharp technique and power. His target being a slabbed chunk of concrete fused with the pavement from an old, broken streetlight no longer stuck in it. His trained, slick footwork combined with his chrome's power sends chunks of concrete flying with every strike. The crew cheers as they marvel, laugh, and talk shit at the display of his skills combined with his chrome.
"Cross, hook, roundhouse!" Brian shouts
Netty steps into the cross from southpaw landing flush, throws the hook, flush and sending another chunk of concrete flying just past Carter's head causing him to casually lean out of the way dodging it. He finishes with the roundhouse… completely exploding what's left of the stubborn concrete slab on impact.
"WOOOO!!!" Everyone shouts, claps and laughs in cheers as Netty watches the chalked dust settle in amazement. No pain...? This is power he never imagined wielding… with a lifetime of code and computers. This was beyond a step up… in Night City…. This was the beginning of a new life. He feels the implants begin to re-settle with a crisp discipline… now comfortably, neurologically settled with his ganic bones and muscle.
"See!? Told ya that chitin laced RealSkinn is BEST in class!" Audrey belts as she walks up to Netty and grabs his wrists to check out his hands. "Hah! Not a scratch on em!" She says looking at his pristine knuckles in the sunlight. "That coupled with your increased marrow density, high end subdermal armor, custom built rara avis and the latest springed joints on market built for mobility, heh! Feel bad for whoever tries to get close. Not to mention the Kiroshi oracles we jumped through hoops to get back. Now that you've got em chipped, I'm sure you'll tailor them to your specs extremely well… Also… really dig that yellow you chose. Goes great with your style." She smiles like a proud parent admiring her creation.
"Heh. Shit. Not sure if you're more solo than runner now huh kid?" Carter compliments with a smirk before tapping him on his shoulder. Netty glances over and sees Carter's heavy gorilla arm augmented hand with that sleek, jetblack finish on them, causing Netty to smirk.
"Heh. Choom… you're one to talk. You're looking like you're ready to go a few rounds with Adam Smasher himself."
They all laugh in unison with big smiles.
"Eh.. kept things pretty straight forward. Enhanced servos, neurological reflex tuners, custom adrenaline boost… y'know. Gotta stay light. Keep the trigger sharp y'know."
"Guessin' your iron can be as quick as your mouth now." Brian mocks, getting another collective laugh out of everyone.
The energy here is far removed from where these people were not too long ago. Occasionally in Night City… you find pockets of euphoria… pockets of hope and strength that you grasp tightly. Short-lived as it may be… these are the things we hold onto… something worth clinging when marching toward an uncertain future. They're here… they're together… and they're stronger for it.
As everyone posts in the alley chatting, Audrey pulls Brian aside. He instinctually picks up on her energy with some distance away from everyone.
"Hey.. listen… something came up last night that you need to know." She mutters with angst as she turns to face him.
He looks at her with experienced anticipation.
"Before this Maelstrom thing heats up… do you remember the geo-sat trigger Netty tinkered with in uhm… in me?"
How can he not when existing in his perpetual state of paranoia... painstakingly groomed overtime in the life of a Night City street punk committed to the edge. He returns Audrey's look of intensifying concern with a soft smile... he places a heavy, augmented hand on her shoulder.
Its as if…. he's been waiting to hear this.