AN: As promised… kind of. Not going to lie, I got to my new place last night and fell asleep almost instantly. So sore.
— — —
Summoner, Nightshade, Conjurer, and Moonfall phased through the world and disappeared. Saint’s eyes widened, and he quickly clicked through his monitor to make sure his connection hadn’t just died. A moment later, all four of them reappeared in an infinite white plane. Blue skies hung overhead like it was an unfinished combat simulation.
Compared to the hyper-realistic snow-covered research base of the Dark Net Battle Royale, this place was an outright eyesore. Saint blinked several times and tried to get used to the new terrain. Or lack of terrain, maybe?
”Moonfall?” Nightshade floated around her runner as a phantom in a complete reversal of how things were back in the DNBR.
“Can’t let you have all the fun, can I?” Moonfall’s voice echoed back. “Just take a bit to relax. I got this, Nightshade.”
He wasn’t sure when, but at some point he’d been given access to their private channel. A quick check of the logs revealed Luna herself had given him an access token. So they noticed he was watching… Hopefully there wouldn’t be any hard feelings about the broadcast.
“What about—“ Nightshade’s voice cut out, likely while trying to discuss something about their future plan.
Ah, so not full access. It looked like sensitive information was still being scrubbed. That was good, though. Saint couldn’t stream with a delay according to Monarch’s rules, so he wouldn’t have a chance to scrub stuff out himself like he usually would.
”I know. I’ve got it handled.” The wolf’s eyes glowed bright blue. “Enjoy the warmth while it lasts.”
“Good point.” Nightshade easily flopped onto her back, and floated in the air with her arms draped behind her head. Her posture screamed confidence. No, it wasn’t confidence. She didn’t seem to think either one of them were threats to begin with. Especially not here, where Luna held so much sway.
On the other side of the vast plane, Conjurer and Summoner were having a very different conversation. “Where the fuck are we?!”
”We were pulled into a subserver, I think.” Conjurer’s fingers danced across a screen flashing with code. Several other screens popped up around him and likewise flicked through the script so fast it was unreadable.
“Well get us out of here!” Summoner kicked his legs to try and reposition, but it only made him look like a fish out of water as he hung there. “Shit, why can’t I move?”
| DarkRun: lol, someone didn’t do his research
| Distinguished Gentleman: Why do I get the feeling this’ll be quick?
”You’re not physical.” Conjurer sighed and flicked his finger toward Summoner. A moment later, his Operator finally managed to get some level of control of where he was moving. “There. Now chill the hell out and quit distracting me.”
Moonfall casually stretched her lupine avatar out. Her paws shot forward, and she sank back onto her haunches. “You ready, Conj?”
Conjurer flinched, and the screens scattered into countless particles. “You! What are you trying to do?”
“Trying?” Moonfall waved her head backward, and the skybox above them instantly shifted to night. Bright moonlight filtered through the space and lit up the white plane. “I already have.”
Conjurer’s face flushed, and he thrust out his hand. A line of code erupted forward, and transformed into a blazing ball of fire shortly after leaving his hand. It streaked across the space only to be harmlessly waved away by Moonfall.
Saint checked his chat window, and picked out a few questions. “That should be Overheat, I think. You guys have probably seen videos of it in the material world. It’s the one that causes chrome to, well, overheat and burn its user.”
| CorpyDays: Overheat’s a quick hack, right? Why did it look like a fireball?
| Cyberpunk_Blue: Seeing just code would be boring, wouldn’t it?
| DarkRun: @CorpyDays visual effects just come with the turf in full dives.
“Custom effects cost more RAM, though.” Saint replayed a clip in the corner of the fireball. “The fireball’s a default effect for Overheat, so this guy’s not showing off. A runner that shows off is either insanely cocky or can afford to.”
As if to prove his point, Moonfall flicked out her own version of Overheat. It split into a dozen shooting stars the moment it left her hand. Each of the stars curved wildly, making it almost impossible to guess the trajectories of all twelve.
”Shit!” Conjurer bundled into a ball, and a bright green shield flashed around him. The Overheat stars slammed harmlessly into the barrier and scrap code scattered into the void.
| CorpyDays: Wouldn’t Overheat be useless on the net though?
”No.” Saint pulled up CorpyDays chat box to the mainstream. They weren’t the only one asking questions. “Overheat attacks runners directly. If enough heat is built up through a fight, it’ll make the net rig cook the runner’s brain outright.”
”I thought you’d be better than this!” Moonfall taunted her opponent, and casually padded closer to him. Nightshade idly floated just behind. “Where are all those big words now?”
”Just you wait!” Conjurer pulled out a dozen cards and launched them forward. The instant the cards hit the ground, they deployed into Merc ICE programs. The ICE didn’t wait a second before opening fire.
”We’re waiting?” Nightshade yawned, and curled up. “Man, I wish I had a pillow right now.”
Moonfall casually held up her paw, and the bullets were sucked into a vortex just in front of her. They stopped there and bobbed around as more and more bullets joined the mix. When there were hundreds of bullets, she flicked her wrist forward. The bullets shot out in a spray of shrapnel, and totally wiped out the ICE programs.
She nodded her head to Nightshade, and a fluffy pillow appeared out of thin air. “There you go. Want a blanket too, princess?”
Saint frowned. Luna was good—like really good. He knew that after working so many times with her. He still couldn’t help but feel that the two of them were goofing off a bit too much, though. This was still a life and death battle that they were in. As an outside observer, though, his worries were destined to go unanswered.
“Princess… It's been a while since I heard that nickname.” Nightshade burrowed her head into the pillow midair, and rolled over onto her side. “He’s doing something.”
“I can see that.” The Netrunner’s attention slowly shifted back to her opponent. She shook out her paw, and waited for him to do his thing.
Saint’s frown deepened. Luna had been way too passive now that he thought about it. From what he’d seen, she usually hit hard and fast… Was she trying to put on a show? She did give him comms access, so that wasn’t totally out there.
Throughout the short scuffle, Conjurer hadn’t been idle. True to his title, his primary form of net combat was by overwhelming his opponent with sheer numbers. With the time that his Merc programs bought, he relentlessly prepared even more.
Lights gleamed all around him, and unit after unit was summoned out of the depths of the net. Tanks rolled out intermixed with soldiers all across the field. APCs appeared, and even more soldiers spilled out of their backs. In mere moments, a small army of ICE had been created from almost nothing.
Conjurer lifted his head proudly, and pointed forward. “Fire!”
Boom!
The instant the order was given, Moonfall disappeared under an insane amount of firepower. Tank shells, bullets, and heavy caliber rounds from mounted turrets slammed into her one after another.
| CorpyDays: It’s over.
| Distinguished Gentleman: @CorpyDays you kidding? It just started.
A black hole opened up in front of Moonfall, and every bit of firepower launched toward her was slowly swallowed up and devoured. Nothing got through. Even Conjurer, standing fairly distant from the source of the black hole, felt it tug on the hem of his clothes.
Despite the pure gravitational force devouring everything and even wrapping up the ground below it, Moonfall stood entirely calm without a hint of destruction across her avatar. “Was that—“
“Haah!” Conjurer cried out triumphantly as a thin sliver of black code sliced through the black hole and slammed into Moonfall’s shoulder. It transformed into a parasite and burrowed deep into her avatar.
“Oh.” Starting from her shoulder, her entire body started to slowly glitch out. The fur of the avatar pixelated and went transparent, fully revealing a wireframe mesh just underneath it. The pixelation spread like a tide of darkness across her.
“Moonfall?” Nightshade sat up for the first time since the fight started.
“Is that it?” Summoner hesitantly asked.
“Told you I had it handled.” Conjurer grinned broadly and called out to his opponents, “face death, and know that I—“
”Good one.” Moonfall’s avatar reverted back to normal, and she plucked out the writhing parasite. A pulse of blue flowed down into it, and the ICE programs all around stuttered abruptly. After a moment, she tossed it carelessly to the side. Just like that, the man’s sneak attack was entirely foiled without much damage beyond cosmetic.
“You—you!” Conjurer pointed forward in total disbelief. His sneak attack being tossed aside so simply seemed to break something in the man. “How?!”
“My turn.” Code poured out of her like an endless ocean, and swirled into a complex array around her. To most observers unfamiliar with the Net, it looked like an intricate spell being crafted by an Adept. The messages rapidly flicking through Saint’s chat indicated as much, anyway.
“Are you done playing around?” Nightshade sighed, and slowly sat up from where she’d been idly watching the scene. “We still have a battle royale to win.”
”… yeah, I’m done.” Moonfall’s voice held a note of casualness to it despite what should’ve been a serious Netrunner fight. The code all around her flashed, and disappeared without any obvious effect. “Let’s get out of here.”
The moon gleamed brightly above in the night sky. At first, it appeared like it was just another simple hack. It proved to be anything but as the moon dipped lower and lower toward the battlefield. The cosmic body’s sheer mass made the army set up below look infinitely small.
The entire server started to shake as the moon itself transformed into a blazing meteor. Fire arched off of it and trailed backward into a long tail. The target of the falling moon? Right on top of Conjurer’s head.
”Do something!” Summoner shouted.
”I’m trying!” Conjurer rapidly threw out shield after shield into a complex array of interlocking protection. By the time the heat of the moon hit and caused him to tremble, there were fifty layers of protection above his head.
Crack!
The falling moon instantly shattered through the layers of protection and slammed down into the duo and the army surrounding them. They vanished under the intense destructive power of the falling cosmic mass, and the entire server erupted into violent quakes. Just as everything started to destabilize, the private server cut out entirely and the only two survivors were transported away.
[Moonfall > Conjurer]
[Moonfall > Summoner]
”Well…” Saint pried his eyes away from the monitor and checked on his chat. “I guess we know why they call her Moonfall now, huh?”
— — —
The instant we returned to the snow-covered warehouse, my rifle practically teleported into my hands. Time slowed around me, and I took in the sight of the battlefield. The spider tank still stood exactly where it had, though it seemed distracted by something off to the side.
“Chill, chum,” Luna called out to me in slow-motion. Her avatar teleported in front of me so that my barrel was basically stuffed into her lupine face.
“Get out of the way!” I instinctively pulled my finger off the trigger. I only had one chance to get a critical strike in on the spider tank while it was distracted.
“Nuh-uh.” She pressed forward further into my barrel. “Why do you think it took me so long to eliminate that guy?”
”Because…” He was a bigger threat than he looked like? That wasn’t quite right, though, was it? Luna never looked pressed throughout the fight. “You were doing something to him, weren’t you?”
“Just wait here.” Instead of answering, she disappeared. Behind where she just stood, the spider tank slowly locked onto me once more. Its limbs creaked and groaned under its weight. The red light of its eyes flashed and transformed into a familiar blue glow. “Say hello to our ride to the next POI, Shiro.”