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.. he turns to face him. "The rat... what's your connection and why were you there that day."
"Listen choom.. i don't-" Netty responds with a half shake of the head before looking over at Brian 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." He says looking out away from the railing.
"My dad was a freelance runner... used to do contract work for some of the city's top clients... corporate executives, high level politicians, multi-billion eddie businesses, you name it. Fairness was he steelo though... he'd often do runs pro bono for locals that couldn't afford it but needed the help. Single moms with assistance funding being withheld... mom and pop shops under attack from rival corps hellbent on putting em outta business. A true blue plughead with an iron hand. 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. Not often do you see a 'crew' of runners who could coordinate like that on such a level."
Brian leans back over the railing and takes another drag of his smoke as he quietly listens.
"His chooms were like my uncles... each of them always had a piece... a gem they'd pass onto me daily when they realized I really took to it. They had kids that I grew up with... my best friends... there were... 5 of us." He says slightly raising his eyebrows... looking down and away.
He recalls a memory:
Netty and his friends, no more than 8 years old are seen sprinting down a street laughing and fleeing from a store owner.
"GET BACK HERE YOU FUCKIN KIDS!!" The owner shouts as he helplessly chases after them well out of shape and bereft of any stamina. 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... he slams to the ground sending trash scattering. The kids hop the fence and continue sprinting down the alley.
"Since our dads were pretty much constantly plugged into the net or on the move we pretty much had free reign with a longing 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 handed down one. They even re-tailored them for us... cleaned the nav so we can personalize em. Usually left some real goodies behind too... nasty programs... real vintage shit. Made sure we knew what the fuck we were doing with em... or at least what we could do with em." He says with pride under his breath.
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 like... like 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. Just... immersed ourselves into the craft on an obsessive level." 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' a 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. Runnin' 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 pleased."
He takes a deep breath... continuing his recollection:
Young Netty hears a loud bang just outside his room causing him to jolt. He rips his headphones off at his computer desk and looks toward the door as his father storms in. He grabs Netty by his shirt and lifts him up onto his feet while moving back toward the entrance of their house. "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. It... was a problem at times."
Netty and his dad share an unheard exchange briefly... his father explaining something to him before gesturing him toward the street and closing the door to the house in his face. Netty casually makes his way through the cold, rain soaked streets of Watson with hoodie up and hands pocketed. It was late... he didn't have much of a plan to be out there so he makes his way to an unmarked, abandoned building several blocks away. He makes his way across the huge open floorspace, all the way to the back of the tattered open warehouse. He opens a locked door with a kiroshi scan hidden behind a scrap of heavy metal that falls back into place upon his entry. 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... gearing up and sorting a bunch of hardware out. Their biz was running on all cylinders as usual... just a group of capable kids with a unknown cause running amuck through the net. Even though he told them he wouldn't be there... they're not surprised to see him.
"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 with everyone's different specs 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... we were young but... felt like our heads were in the right place y'know."
Netty pauses briefly on the thought. Clearly something he's spent countless hours thinking through.
"It made us cocky... careless... felt untouchable... full of ourselves. More daring less... cautious."
He paces back toward the railing.
"We had been working this Kang Tao datafortress for a while by then... nothin' too spicy or out of our wheelhouse but... 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. Everyone had their own theory... thinking of different ways to approach it. Then-"
He closes his eyes tight.
While all 5 of them are plugged into their setup... a sudden flash of red lightning sparks from the visor of one of Netty's friend's runner goggles causing them to short circ and explode. The static purge emits a sharp whir in the silence of the room... his friend lets out a loud shriek of pain as his body seizes and tenses up... shortly after, the tension in his body slowly releases and re-settles into his runner chair... as blood begins to seep out of his ears, nose and mouth... slowly dripping from his neck to the floor. The rest of them still plugged into the net see his avatar shatter into countless fragments of code before disintegrating. This causes the rest of them to take formation and react... immediately playing defense while searching for the source of the attack as their heightened awareness locks them in. Executing a series of different programs unsuccessfully. 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 resistance before ultimately falling prey to this overwhelming, unknown source. Fractured failsafes untriggered or simply just didn't work.
"I just... ran.. and I didn't stop running... until... I saw him."
Netty slowly approaches his dad's avatar in the net who has his back turned toward him standing still. His interface flowing with code as he quickly navigates it. He 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!!" His father shouts. He yanks Netty in close... his eyes quickly flicker blue causing Netty's to do the same.
"DAD!?" Netty shouts in complete panic and desperation.
"JUST GO!!!" His dad says as he shoves him away knocking Netty off balance.
"...Just fuckin go.." His dad whispers a final time... the emotion in his voice unforgettable to him. A lifetime of thoughts articulated into a final command. A tsunami of distorted, red lightning floods toward them as Netty takes a final look before turning to run away.
Netty suddenly jolts awake in his runner chair. His eyes open wide as he takes a deep gasping breath as if resurfacing from underwater after nearly drowning. He quickly yanks his helmet off along with all of his plugs while hyperventilating. The various alarm beeps and buzzes of equipment pinging for warnings and overloads fill the space in a chaotic scramble. He rips the last of his wires out of the system before falling out of the chair to his hands and knees... coughing and vomiting. With his head spinning in a daze, he slows his breathing down and scrambles to his feet.
He sees his friends laying lifeless in their chairs with blood seeping out of their ears noses and mouths... gentle, idle black smoke rises from the various machines and wires connected to their setup. The stench of death fills the room alongside cooked machinery crackling under the pressure of fire and heat... melting skin and charring chrome.
"NO! NO! NO!!!" He screams 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 lifeless friend's shoulders and shaking him. He takes a few steps back to look at his 4 friends laying dead in their chairs. A high pitched ringing enters his ears as he looks on in complete disbelief. The emotions of the moment overwhelm him... his head feels light as the room starts to spin. His screams of panic are left completely muted as his silhouette frantically attempts to tend to his friends... ending the flashback.
Netty stands looking over the railing as Brian rests his back against 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.."
He pauses briefly before shifting subject slightly. "His.... his body may be gone... but he's still alive. He's still in there... I know it."
"Alive? Like retreated into the net..? I've heard of stuff like that happenin' before but it never-"
"-He's alive." Netty insists sternly while quickly looking back at Brian with a serious face... a single tear running 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 stares out into the distant city lights... a pause accompanies the change in subject.
"The Black Wall hack was for them."
You see Netty fearlessly standing before the Black Wall face to face... alone deep in the voids of cyberspace... truly on the edge.
"It was a hack just like any other we had done... to send a message... it was about... taking back... control."
With eyes red he raises his hand out toward the Black Wall... it's foundation in front of him begins 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 Netty places the palm of his hand directly on it... straining hard while gritting his teeth. The reaction of the wall only intensifies as the affect of his touch begins to ripple throughout the area surrounding his point of contact. The very void of cyberspace around him begins distort... glitching along with an intense shake resembling that of an earthquake lasting for a period of time. The subtle whispers of connected voices beyond ring out in a violently inaudible mess as he doesn't back down... a numbing sensation washes over.. quickly turning to a needle like sensation spiking through his hand and rapidly intensifying... making its way through his body in a gripping motion.
"That WE'RE still here..."
The Black Wall then begins to slowly settle as Netty staggers back a few steps away from it, nearly falling on his ass... 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 asks 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."