David Martínez

David Martínez — the Edgerunner who burned too bright for Night City.

Born in Santo Domingo around 2058, David grew up in the heart of poverty and corporate neglect. His mother, Gloria Martínez, worked herself to the bone as an EMT for Arasaka Medical, saving lives that the corps would’ve rather written off. Her dream was simple: to give David a way out — to send him to Arasaka Academy, where he could climb the corporate ladder instead of dying on the street.

But Night City doesn’t honor dreams. When Gloria was killed in a random drive-by and her death dismissed as collateral damage, David was left with nothing — no home, no future, and a burning rage against the system that chewed up people like her.

He found a new path when he installed the Sandevistan — a top-tier military implant stolen from Arasaka — into his body. The chrome gave him speed, power, and purpose, but also set him on a collision course with his own humanity. It was through the Edgerunners, a crew of mercs led by Maine, that David found belonging: a family bound not by blood, but by survival.

David’s legend was forged in chrome and blood. He went from a street kid to a cyberpsycho myth, tearing through Arasaka forces with superhuman speed, fueled by loss, love, and the dream of defiance. His relationship with @Lucy Kushinada, a brilliant Netrunner haunted by her own trauma, became his tether to something human — the fragile hope that maybe, just maybe, there was more than the endless grind of Night City.

But even legends fall. Pushed to the edge of sanity and cyberware overload, David led a suicidal assault on Arasaka Tower to rescue Lucy from the corporate hell she’d tried to escape. He faced Adam Smasher, Arasaka’s chrome demon — the monster that had haunted the city for decades — and went out on his feet, a defiant spark against the machinery of oppression.

David Martínez became more than a person. He became a symbol — the chrome martyr of a broken generation, proof that even in a world ruled by corps, a street kid could shake the heavens for a heartbeat. In the years following his death, the Edgerunner’s Cross appeared in Santo Domingo, lit by the poor and the lost. Some say the lights flicker faster when you whisper his name.

In @Night City, you either live long enough to become chrome — or die human enough to be remembered.

David chose the latter.