-
“Arc?” Alan repeated the name and tried to ignore the pain he felt in his head. He was too old to be getting involved in a bar fight and thinking back on it there was only one other time when he did get involved. It was Kevin’s fault of course. They were celebrating their success with both finding the evidence that Kevin needed and destroying the MCP. They both had one too many beers to drink and Kevin mouthed off to one person he shouldn’t have mouthed off too.
“That is me,” Arc said as he continued to look at Alan. “You are also a User, the same as the boy.”
“Excuse me?” Sam asked and raised his eyebrows. “I’m not really a boy.”
“Where were you?” Quorra asked as she stared at Arc. “We were looking for you.”
“Seeking out potential fighters,” Arc explained.
“None of us want to fight,” someone in the crowd said. “Why do you keep looking for new recruits?”
“Not everyone wants to hide in the safety of their circuitry,” Arc said as he paced around the floor. “There are some who understand that we need to fight. We need to purge the system of corruption.”
“For our Users,” another person shouted and raised their fist.
“Precisely,” Arc said as he nodded toward him.
“Not all of us are security rograms,” a third person said.
“Not all who fight are.” The man in the robe pointed to Quorra. “She is not a security program.”
“Isn’t she a User?” A woman asked.
“I’m not sure what I am now,” Quorra said as she looked around the group. “But I have fought in the past and will continue to fight. Shouldn’t the fact that there are Users here give you a sign of hope, to encourage you to take a stand?”
“We also have someone else here,” Alan said. He remembered how the crowd at the arena had reacted when they learned that Tron was one of the fighters. “We have the legendary warrior. One of the greatest security programs that have ever been developed.” He pointed at his program. “Tron has returned.”
The crowd gasped again and turned to where Tron stood.
“It is him,” someone said.
“We are saved,” another person added.
“He abandoned us,” a third person said and stood up at a table. “I’ve been told stories about the great warrior, Tron. They told me he worked with a User and destroyed the legendary beast, the Master Control Program.” He glared. “I also been told you disappeared. You left us to go and join a different system, to be their warrior.”
“That Grid was created by my friend,” Alan said. “A single User had created their own Grid on their own. He didn’t have the help of others to help create it. He did it all on his own and he needed a powerful warrior to help protect it. Tron was his friend and Kevin Flynn asked if I would loan him to him. You want to get mad at anyone you get mad at me.”
“This other world also has many capable warriors,” Quorra said. “They are willing to assist us. They want to help and fight for the Users.”
“I have seen the MCP up close,” Tron said. “I have battled against him. I have been told how he started out as a chess program, but he grew, more and more were added to him.” He walked up to Quorra and simply nodded at her and waited until she nodded back to continue. “Do we know if Osiris will become something like him? No we don’t. The data on him is insufficient at this time. What we do know is that he is ruthless. He has taken over most of this system. He won’t stop until it is completely under his control.”
“You all do not have to fight,” Arc said. “But even if you don’t, then you might know of some ore a few who can and are willing to do so. Spread the word. Have those who want to take up arms to meet at the archive. I will send someone to retrieve you and come to where we have gathered.” He slowly spun around. “Those who wish to join us now and fight will follow us now.”
A few people in the club cheered, some others clapped and others simply just set their glasses down and approached the doorway.
“Certainly gets through to people,” Alan said. He approached Sam and Janelle. “How are you two holding up?”
“Knuckles don’t hurt as much,” Janelle said. “How about you’re head?”
“I no longer feel any pain,” Alan said. He felt something, but it wasn’t pain.
“Are you sure?” Sam asked. “Alan, if you are in any kind of pain.”
“I told you I was fine,” Alan answered. “Kevin if you are listening, what are you planning?”
“I don’t have many plans,” Kevin told him.
“Why haven’t you told anyone anything?” Alan asked.
“I knew Sam wouldn’t go to the theater if he knew Tron was going to be there,” Kevin answered. “Can say the same about your program. I’m guessing he is no longer moody?”
“He’s gotten over his emo attitude,” Janelle said.
“He does seem to be better now that I fixed his code,” Alan added before Kevin could ask what emo meant.
“Sam, I need you to trust him,” Kevin said. “You have faith in Alan’s abilities. You can trust the both of us when it comes to Tron.”
“We’ll see how this plays out,” Sam said and walked off in the same direction as Arc, Tron, Quorra and those who wish to fight.
“I believe in you guys,” Janelle said and turned towards Sam. “I trust Tron.”
“At least she does,” Alan said softly.
“I’m kind of hoping she does something more,” Kevin said in an unusual tone. It was the tone he used when he was plotting something.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing. You better catch up.”
Alan ran up ahead. He will discuss the issue with his dead friend later.
-
Osiris stared at the various bits of corrupted data on his lab table. The scans were showing such interesting results. They contained data on something called Rinzler and there were tiny flecks of code to access and activate this Rinzler.
“Fascinating,” Osiris said as he continued to study and read it.
“I have good news to report,” Regor said as he entered and paused to bow.
“What have you to tell me?” Osiris asked. He did not bother to look up from his research.
“Those Solar Sailer platform works have been reformatted,” Regor said. “They were easy, being small minded that they were.”
“I wouldn’t go around and comment about other program’s intelligence levels if I were you.” He looked up at his number one. “Have you gotten the password?”
“Several.”
“Excellent. Have those repurposed workers create a new Sailer, but before you leave I want to know more about Rinzler.”
“I have already found information on Rinzler,” Regor said. “I found on my own time.”
“You have?” Osiris grinned.
“Found a few stray programs that came across the border from a very secluded system. They knew all about him and I have written down everything they told me.”
“You have exceeded my expectations for this cycle. Prepare the Sailer at once. I will have my ship follow behind and I will read about this Rinzler.”
“Would you want me to gather more of those flecks of loose data?” Regor asked. Just when he had raised his image in front of Osiris he had lowered it within a few nanos.
“Of course,” Osiris strained himself form sighing. He shouldn’t be too cross. Soon he will have breached the Firewall. Soon he will have the ghostly User and the warrior program, known as Tron. He will have complete control of the system and that will be the first step.
-
Arc had let them on a long walk and this worried Tron a little, mostly for the health and safety of his User. He didn’t know how long it would take for Alan to get worn out and winded. He also noticed that Alan had a small cut on his head. He wished he had some energy with him. He could put a little on the wound. That should heal it.
“Are you well?” Tron asked Alan after a few nanoseconds.
“I’m fine,” Alan answered. “I wish everyone would stop worrying.”
“You are bleeding.” Tron was a bit fascinated with blood. Programs did not leak like Users did and seeing it both amazed and worried Tron. It meant that a User was injured. Tron had first seen blood when Flynn accidentally cut himself once and used the Sea of Simulation to clean the injury. Flynn had told them that if too much leaked out then a User would die. It was the site of blood that halted Tron when he was Rinzler from further hurting Sam.
“It’s just a little cut.” Alan said and placed his hand over it. “Not too long, or wide, or deep. It has already started to clot.”
“I wonder where we are going,” Janelle had said. “Been walking a while.”
“Not sure myself,” Tron answered. He hadn’t noticed until now that he was holding her hand. “Let me know when you get tired.”
“Why?” Janelle asked. “Are you going to carry me?”
Tron shrugged. “I might.”
“Don’t worry about me, the dead don’t need to rest.” She chuckled. “Which is kind of funny, cause we used to joke back in college that we will sleep when we are dead.”
“Not a funny joke,” Tron said to her. “Especially now.”
“Just meant that we had so much to do that we really didn’t have much time to sleep. We also joked about sticking an IV full of coffee into our veins.”
“Flynn told me those are like circuits.”
“Kind of.” Janelle agreed.
“Have you thought more about my theory?”
“Yeah.” She rubbed the back of her head. “Don’t know how to confirm that.”
“You could give your Identity Disk to Alan. He could examine it with Flynn’s help and they would be able to figure it out.”
“Probably once we reach this location.”
They continued walking out past the main Grid to the outlands. As they continued to walk, Tron looked up and around. He saw strange dwellings and programs peering out at them.
“We are not alone,” Tron said as he reached for his disks.
“Relax.” Alan placed a hand on his shoulder. “These might be the other Freedom Fighters.”
“We are here,” Arc said and stopped. “We will give armor to those who are not equipped.
“How much training do we need?” Quorra asked. “Those who do not have any but wish to fight?”
“We will start with them immediately.” Arc removed his robes. “Those who have some training will be shown to my top two lieutenants.”
“Lieutenants?” Sam asked.
“That would be us,” a strangely familiar voice said as a program approached them. He was followed by a female. Both were wearing helmets that obstructed the view of their faces, yet they were very familiar.
Tron stared at the female. Her armor did not have much glowing blue circuits, but her chest did have a light blue triangle shape in the center. She was also the same height and built as—no. It couldn’t be, it just couldn’t be her.
“Tron?” The female asked. There was no mistaken the sound of her voice.
“Yori?” Tron gasped.
“It is you.” The helmet retracted revealing the beautiful face of Yori with her golden hair free from any bindings and brushing against her shoulders. “Oh my User, it is you.”
They ran up to each other and embraced.
“I dreamed of this day,” Tron told her.
“I thought you had been derezzed,” Yori said. “So many megacycles had passed when we last communicated.”
He smiled. “It appears I’m pretty hard to kill.”
“Mrs. Bradley?” Sam asked.
“Sam, Janelle, this is Yori,” Tron introduced them. “And these are my friends, Janelle, Quorra and Sam. He’s the son of Flynn.”
“Hi,” Sam said.
“The Yori,” Janelle gasped.
“Hello,” Quorra said and held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”
“You have to meet my User.” Tron brought her to where Alan was standing. “Alan, look.”
“Lora?” Alan stared at them and blinked. “You were one of Lora’s programs.”
“He does share some resemblance with you,” Yori said.
“I can’t believe I’m meeting you,” Janelle said. Her eyes were full of admiration. “You were one of my child hood heroes. I wanted to grow up to be just like you.”
“My father told stories to Janelle and I,” Sam explained. “He told us about your heroic exploits.”
“I think Flynn may have embellished my role a little,” Yori said with a smile.
“My User married your User,” Tron told her.
“They did?” She smiled at Alan before she looked at Tron again. There was something off about her smile, it seemed a little faded and not as sincere.
“We have a son,” Alan added. “His name is Jethro, but he likes to be called Jet. He’s helping Lora out in Washington.”
“I have a feeling he is as handsome as his father,” Yori said and turned to Sam. “I see a bit of Flynn in your face.”
“There is some,” Sam agreed. “But I’ve been told I got more of my looks from my mother.”
“I guess I’m fried data,” the male program said. His tone was upbeat and a little laid back. He didn’t seem to be upset at all.
“I know you.” Tron said as he studied the other program. He had more circuitry than the others.
“Not quite as you remember.” The helmet retracted from his face. There was no mistaking that smile.
“Ram,” Tron gasped. “But how? You were derezzed.”
“Most of me,” Ram explained and ran his fingers through his blond curly hair. “There were just a few bits of data that returned to my User at the insurance agency. He gathered them up and rewrote me. I don’t remember it all, but just enough.”
“It’s a miracle,” Tron said as he grasped the arm of his old friend. It was time for reintroductions again. He turned to his User and friends. “Alan, Sam, Janelle, Quorra. This is Ram.”
“Ram?” Alan asked. “You kind of remind me of the guy that used to borrow popcorn from me.”
“I do?” Ram asked as he raised his eyebrow.
“I thought he-“ Sam started.
“The reports of my demise have been extremely confirmed,” Ram said. “I’m more of a second version with some of my original data.”
“Oh, you are Ram 2.0?” Sam asked.
“You can say that.”
“How long have you been here?” Tron asked.
“Since the invasion,” Yori explained. “Ram and I tried to fight back along with several others but it wasn’t enough. We met up with Arc and then the Firewall appeared. We rescued as many programs as we could.”
“Thank Alan for that,” Sam said.
“Not just me,” Alan told them. “It was a joint effort with Adrian and several others.”
“I’m sure we have a lot of catching up to do,” Ram said. “But first how about we download a little and relax. We have plenty of energy.”
“You should get that looked at,” Yori said as she pointed at Alan’s cut.
“I tried telling him that,” Tron said. “He wouldn’t listen.”
“It could be serious,” Yori said and looked into Alan’s eyes. “You have to get that treated.”
Alan stared back at Yori and blinked. “If you insist.”
“Why didn’t he listen to me?” Tron asked.
“Forget it,” Sam said and glanced at Janelle. She smiled and nodded back. It must be something that only Users understood.
“I could go for some Energy,” Tron said and smiled at his two friends that he had thought he had lost.
-