TOTW came first and was followed by IS a year later. But yeah they bosses are hissii. No idea what the connection.
As for the subway. Prior to whompas being created RK had a complete and working subway system. When whompas came on line the subway was abandoned. It became the refuge for all those souls that suffered at the hand of early reclaim tech. And for reference the grid was created later by omni-tech as even more superior form of travel. And then I forget the date but the fixers figured out how to hack the grid and created the fixer grid.