The Princess of the Streets

Misty sat on the roof… It was dark… The lights of Night City had all gone out only a few minutes ago… This wasn’t a local blackout, like had happened before, the entire city had just suddenly lost power. And at that moment, there was a wave of warm air… It seemed to flow throughout the city, through every dark and shadowy alley, through every tunnel, flowing through the spires of the megabuildings, and even down into the homeless shelters deep within the sewers.

The moon was shining high above, brilliant, pale blue tonight… She felt as if the moon was some giant eye, staring down upon her, upon the entire city, watching…

She was unsure how, but suddenly Misty found herself standing on a cliff, overlooking the city, from the deserts to the south-east… But the mass of dead black metal and glass was not what drew her attention, as strange as it was to see the city without a single light. There, right above the biggest microwave power receiver in the middle of the Jackson Plains, there was a point of light, like a small sun… It rose from the top of the power plant receiver tower into the sky, as beams of light started to form, appearing first like heatwaves accompanied by pale golden light, nearly invisible at first but growing in intensity, from all across the sky they rained down upon that point right above the tower… The waves of warm air, tasting strong of ash and smelling of ozone, washed across the cliff and throughout the badlands, kicking up small dust storms.

It was getting hotter and hotter. Misty found it hard to keep her eyes open, her skin started to sting where the air and light touched it, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the display, nor could she bring herself to move from where she stood… The microwave antenna, it was raked by small explosions, blue-white bursts where electrical equipment failed under the growing heat, the top of the tower was starting to turn a deep and angry red and the blue explosions were joined by fiery orange ones.

As she watched, aircraft and hovercraft started to swarm toward the point of light, bearing logos of various corps, Arasaka, Biotechnica, Militech, Kang Tao, Trauma Team, and of course the NCPD too… Bullets filled the air, cannons roared, missiles flew out on streams of smoke and fire that were washed away by the pulses of air… There were explosions all around the point of light, but none seemed to actually strike, she knew somehow that the bullets were melting into slag before they hit, and the missiles were detonating from the searing heat before striking a target.

The aircraft began vanishing… One by one their lights flicked out. A hovercraft bearing the Arasaka logo flew right past her, mere meters away, and right before her eyes something flew right through it, feeling cold. The hovercraft fell to shattered and torn pieces, torn bodies being thrown from the vehicle as it was seemingly torn to shreds by invisible and unspeakably fast blades.

She now found herself staring down into the middle of the city, right into Corporate Plaza… It was in ruins, some of the buildings looked as if they had been half-melted, while others were shattered and torn like some great claw had torn chunks out of them, while there were merely craters where others had stood. Down below, marching out of one of the buildings, Arasaka Tower, which was now half its original height and looked as if it had melted from the inside-out, bits of rapidly cooling slag dripping from runny windows, came a small but majestic horse, not much taller than a human, but whose dark mane flowed in an unfelt wind and sparkled with starlight, floating next to her in a field of pale blue energy was a staff of twisted metal studded with various bits of tech and crowned by a large jagged crystal which had several strange red chips melted into it.

As the horse marched into the plaza, hundreds of guards and police officers raised their weapons and opened fire, but a shimmering shield of blue light caused the bullets to fly back at those who fired them. The majestic horse raised her staff, there was a flash of light, and-

Misty was now in a street, she could feel the bullets flying past her or even right through her, but there was no pain, no feeling of lead tearing at her flesh, it was as if she was merely smoke in the air. The police were on the retreat, some were sprinting as fast as their legs could carry them, while others were backing away while firing every last round their guns had. Misty turned, and saw it… A brilliant white horse, mane burning as if someone had doused it in oil and lit it, but the horse did not seem at all disturbed by this, her eyes were deep and dark but glowed a brilliant fiery orange at the same time… Around her were the poor, the homeless, the starving, who she guarded against the hail of bullets with her wings, made of glistening ruby and which caused the air around them to shimmer as if they were as hot as a furnace.

She was now sitting atop a mountain, overlooking the deserts around Night City, it was day, but the day was brighter than normal… Lit by a growing cloud of angry red and orange smoke that was quickly billowing outward.

She was standing on the ruin of a Militech panzer, its hull ripped open as if some angry god-like wolf or bear had smelled food within… It wasn’t the only ruined hulk lining the old Californian desert… The corp’s army lay broken upon the gates to Night City, tens of thousands of bodies lay scattered among the piles of ash and still glowing craters where tanks and mechs had once stood.

She was sitting in a forest… She had never seen the forest before, but despite all the new sights and sounds, something else drew Misty’s attention, it should have been the middle of the night, but a second sun was passing overhead… It flew with speed that even hypersonic aircraft couldn’t match, shining golden light down upon the world, and where that light touched, plants quickly withered and burst into flames, the mouldy mulch upon the forest floor was turned to ash and cinder, while the trees quickly became mere firewood for the onrushing inferno… The light overhead continued to fly… It was going to circle the whole world, Misty knew… There would be nothing left untouched by the coming flame…

With that, Misty woke up, sweating… She pulled herself out of her bed, outside her window the lights of Night City were still bright, the holographic billboards still felt streams of color into the sky, neon tubes buzzing and humming away, advertising stores, diners, brothels, and corps of all kinds… But there was still a lingering air of fear and awe in the wind, although that may still have been the last of her dream still clinging to her mind… There was the scent of something burning though, a few wisps of smoke were floating in from the door.

She walked out to investigate, walking toward the front desk of her shop, Misty’s Esoterica, and there was the source of the burning scent… Her deck of tarot cards, now a pile of ash. How did that happen? She thought to herself, lamenting the loss of the deck, old and worn as it was… There was one card left intact she discovered as she swiped the remains of the deck into a trash bin… The Sun and The Moon… An odd feeling crept up her spine, she suddenly drew her hand back, as if afraid to touch them… She didn’t know why, but she couldn’t bring herself to lay a finger on them, shivering, she walked slowly back toward the bed, hoping that this was still part of her dream…