-
Sam stared up at the program that stood before him. He could tell by the armor and circuitry that it was Tron, but someway, somehow, Osiris had managed to repurpose him, turn him back into Rinzler after Alan had fixed him.
“Tron, it’s me Sam, Sam Flynn.” He rose to his feet without removing his eyes from the deadly program. “I am your friend. We are friends. We are all working together to save this system.”
Tron stared at him, or Sam felt like he was being stared at with the way his face reflected off of his helmet. His head tilted to the side and he made that cackling, sparking, purring sound.
“Tron?” Sam asked in the hope that he might have gotten through to him.
Tron had raised his disks and slashed down at Sam with lightening speed
Sam used his own disk to block one of the disks while he angled his body to avoid the other one. “Why are you doing this?” It was a stupid question because he certainly knew why. It was his new programming, his new code but he only recently was turned back into the enforcer. Who knows what Clu had done to him over the years in the Grid and through all of that rewriting there was still a spark of Tron left, just enough for him to remember.
“Enemy.” Tron’s voice was low with a sharp edge.
“I’m not an enemy. I’m a User.”
“User?” Tron’s strength relaxed.
“Yes. You are Tron. You fight for the Users.” He stood up and stared at his own reflection in Tron/Rinzler’s helmet.
The program growled and broke away from the stand off. He kicked at Sam’s leg.
Sam hit the ground again, reeling from the pain from Tron’s kick and knew if he survived he was going to have one hell of a bruise there. He rolled over and looked up at Rinzler as he pounced on him.
“I am Rinzler. I fight for Osiris. There are no Users.” He slashed down with his disks.
Sam was only able to block one and cringed when the other cut against his arm. While painful he hoped that a part of Tron will resurface when he sees his blood again.
Tron paused and did seem to be staring down at him, studying Sam’s wound and the blood that was leaking out of it.
“Users bleed like that,” Sam said as he pointed at his fresh cut. “We are real. You were friends with my father.”
Tron growled again.
Sam tried to kick him off but the skilled program dodged and went to strike him again.
Another disk flew through the air and knocked the one of the deadly weapons out of Tron’s hand before it spun back and went to Yori.
Sam took the opportunity to force Tron off him and rolled away.
“What have they done to you?” Yori addressed the repurposed program.
Tron turned to her. He raised his arms to throw one of the disks and paused.
“That’s your girlfriend,” Sam said. Tron might not listen to him but he would listen to Yori.
“Tron it’s me,” Yori said as she lowered her disk. Tears were welling up in her eyes. Sam could not imagine the pain she was going through to see her lover like this
“Yori?” Tron asked as his helmet retracted. His hair was unkempt and his face was slick with sweat or the program equivalent to sweat and his eyes were bloodshot.
“Yes,” Yori smiled. “We are on the same side.” She reached out to him “Please remember.
“We are fighting for a better system together.” He took her hand in his and his scowl softened.
“Exactly,” Sam agreed. He knew Yori would get through to him.
“Yori and I are working for Osiris.” Tron spun around to face Sam. A flash of red flickered across his eyes.
“No Tron,” Yori grabbed his shoulder from behind. “Remember who you originally fought for. Remember Alan.”
“Alan?” Tron blinked. “Alan-one?”
“He’s here,” Sam said in a coaxing tone. “He’s helped you before. He will help you again.”
“Alan-one,” Tron repeated. “My User.” He cringed. “Users are not real. I fight for Osiris.” He blinked twice. “No I-“ He grabbed his head.
“It’s going to be okay,” Yori said and reached for Tron again, only to have him smack her hand again. “Tron?”
“I am not Tron.” The red light flashed across his eyes again. “I am Rinzler.”
-
“Fools,” Regor said as he watched the battle from an open window. “They are trying to get through to him.”
“That would be quite a feat,” Osiris said. “I have reinserted the deleted data and I have rewritten him. Not to mention that I think I might have broken him with my favorite toy.”
“I almost wish I was here to see that.”
“I do love that sadistic streak in you.”
“I am pleased to make you happy, Master.”
“This group shall be defeated soon,” Osiris said. “We will take the prisoners and put them with the others and when my rectifyer arrives they will be a part of us.”
“The system will be yours and then that other system that is cut off from the Users.”
“I am looking forward to that.” Osiris smiled. “It shouldn’t be too difficult to take control. I have been told that it has been weakened recently.”
“That it has.”
“And then we shall remove all the borders that have been imposed,” Osiris continued. “I have learned of a program that was known as Master Control and was able hack into computers across the globe, all those that were built by ENCOM. Just think of how far we will be able to go with the Web.”
“Master?” Regor stared at him. He did not remember that being part of the main goal. “That was not the intent of our Users, was it not?”
“Not our Users, no.”
“Then why will we be doing it?”
“It would not be fair to not share a perfect unity with all the systems across the world wide web. There are so many that are not functioning properly, due to lack of a leader, or perhaps they are in the hands of an incompetent Users. They will need us and they will thank us.”
“There are other competent Users out there. Two of them created us.” He wasn’t sure if hey liked what his master was saying, or implying. His master couldn’t be intending what Regor thought he was going to do.
“Like the one I tried to pull in here.” He rubbed his index and thumb together. “The one that dared to insult me with such a basic name. I will pull him in give him a sufficient punishment, that is if he hadn’t run off screaming. He might be too afraid to try his little tricks again.”
“What if there are others?”
“Then we will take them in. If they push me I will push back.”
“Our Users will not like it.”
“When did you start caring about Users?” Osiris gave him a hard stare. “You are not getting soft on me are you?”
“Of course not.” He shook his head. “I was just curious how our Users, Max and Ed were going to take this.”
“Ah.” Osiris placed his hands in the pocket of his coat. “Max will not care one way or the other as long as he gets paid. Edward however might be somewhat concerned about my main goals, but he also can be bought.”
“They won’t try to look in on us and see what are our true plans are, then?”
“Of course not.” Osiris walked up to him and stared out the window. “Users are fools. Throw them a few treats and they will stay away from you. We do not have to worry about the Users looking in on us, only worry when we find a way to step out into their world.”
“What will they say?” Regor asked. “What would Max and Ed say?”
“They may not be thrilled, by then they will no longer be any concern of us.”
“I understand, Master,” Regor said as he unsheathed his disk. “I understand all too well.” He spun towards Osiris and brought the disk down.
“I foresaw this,” Osiris said as he blocked Regor’s attack. “Who do you serve, me or the Users?”
“I serve Maxwell Ricker and Edward Dillinger Jr.”
“Then so be it,” Osiris brought his disk back and struck again.
-
Adrian watched the window, waiting for the upload to complete. He had no idea how long it would take, especially on an older operating system like this one was. To his surprise it was almost instantly.
“Everything has been uploaded,” Adrian said as he typed out the response. “Going to have it run.”
The gray window had changed. It now asked him if the wanted to run.exe the vaccine software.
“Let’s hope this works.” He made the arrow click on yes.
-
“He’s about to run it,” Alan said to Arc. Something had come through the beam. That something turned out to be five coffin shaped crystals each with what looked like a human or a program sleeping inside them
“I would advise you to step back,” Arc said and grabbed onto Alan’s shoulder back. “We are going to need to give them some room.”
“Give them room?” Alan asked but followed Arc out onto the alter and pulpit.
The tower shook as the crystals broke and green light filled the v shaped entrance. Several figures road through on vehicles that resembled tall flightless birds and horses. The figures were wearing glowing armor, resembling knights from the medieval era. They carried large shields on their arms and each one had a least three forms of weapons.
“Where is the infection?” One of the glowing warriors asked. He looked and sounded like Adrian. The rest of the soldiers looked like the ENCOM employees that were part of Adrian’s team.
“Follow us,” Arc said.
“Before we go,” the Adrian look-a-like said. “You will both need to be protected.”
“Protected?” Alan asked.
“That is correct,” One of the female warriors said and held out her hand. “Do you have an weapon of your own?”
“I do,” Alan said and held out his disk.
“You have been protected,” she said as she placed her hand on top of it. Energy poured out of her hand and illuminated Alan’s disk.
Alan’s finger’s tingled from the contact. The sensation spread out across his hands, to his wrists, arms and finally through his body. He felt like he had twenty years removed from his body, any slight sign of fatigue had been wiped and any part of him that was sore was now healed.
“Ah,” Arc murmured. “I haven’t felt this good since I took a swim in an energy spring.”
“Are there others that need the same amount of protection?” Another soldier asked.
“There are many,” Arc answered.
“Take us to them.”
The trek back to the main encampment of the freedom fighters was not as long as the one to the tower, or at least it seemed that way to Alan. It had to be what the vaccination software had done to him. It not only rejuvenate him, but it also made him faster and stronger, at least that is what it felt like.
“What kind of infection are we talking here?” The Adrian look-a-like asked when they were over half way back to the camp.
“A powerful program,” Arc answered. “It has managed to infiltrate and corrupt most of the system. It had gotten through the firewall that protected the safe part from the infected area.
“It sounds like a challenge,” the female program that had given Alan his powerup had said. “But it isn’t impossible.”
“What do I call you?” Alan asked. “Your Users had to give some kind of name to refer to.”
“I have been given the name of Kris,” the female said.
“I am Dirk,” the one that looked like Adrian had said.
“Dagger,” a third one added.
“Claymore,” the fourth one said.
“I am called Machete,” the other female said.
“Those names are pretty fitting,” Alan said. “I know the team that made you.”
“Alan here is a User,” Arc explained.
“A User,” Dirk repeated with a smile. “I never thought I would ever see or meet one.”
“I’ll tell you about the one who created you,” Alan promised. It would have to wait because they had just come across the encampment and it was filled with hundreds and hundreds of programs.
“You have quite the army,” Dagger said in an impressed tone.
“I guess most were in their tents earlier,” Alan said and turned to face Arc. “I didn’t know you had this many freedom fighters.”
“I didn’t,” Arc said with a frown. “I wonder who are all these programs.”
Alan sought out a familiar face but all the programs were complete strangers to him. Where were his friends?”
“Alan,” Quorra called out as she ran up to them. “Arc.”
“Quorra, what’s going on?” Alan asked. “Who are all these other programs?”
“The security programs and others who wish to fight from Flynn’s Grid,” Quorra answered. She pointed at Dirk’s group. “Who are they?”
“The security programs from Adrian’s vaccine project,” Alan answered. “I made it through and Adrian made it through.”
“Thank the creator,” Quorra said with a sigh of relief.
“Where are the others?” Alan asked as Arc and Dirk’s group were spreading the same protective energy to the other fighters.
“They went to rescue Tron,” Quorra said. Her eyes were sad and her voice was filled with guilt. “He saw to it that we could escape. Sam and Yori lead a rescue team and Janelle and Ram followed.”
Alan turned to the direction of the city. In the distance he saw something that resembled a recognizer.
“We are all going in now,” Alan said. “Quorra le me see your disk.”
“Here,” Quorra said and held it out for him.
“Spread it around,” Alan instructed as he passed on the protection to her. “Once everyone has it was are going inside and stopping this once and for all.”
-
Jolting pain shot through Rinzler’s head and radiated through out his body. He heard several voices shouting at him, ordering him what his next move should be.
“Tron it’s me,” another voice joined the group, but this was different, familiar, the voice of a friend.
“W-who?” Rinzler asked.
“You have got to know who,” the voice repeated. “Your guardian angel. I’ve been leading you through your redemption.”
“Guardian angel,” Rinzler repeated. He heard that word before. He was sitting with two others staring at the night sky.
-
“I wish I could make the stars appear,” the User said as the three of them stared at the sky. “They are beautiful, the way they shine and twinkle.”
“Do they sparkle?” Rinzler asked his friend.
“Yeah you can say the sparkle.”
“When two programs are in love and are together sparkles form around them,” Rinzler said. “You want to make the sky full of love?”
“Exactly.”
“The perfect system has a sky full of love?” the program that resembled the User asked.
“A system isn’t perfect if there is no love,” the User answered.
“Flynn you said out there it wasn’t different for Users,” Rinzler said. “We look up to Users. Who do Users look up to?”
“Depends on the User,” Flynn answered. “There are different forms of religion out there with different beliefs and gods.”
“What is yours?” Clu asked.
“Mine?” Flynn shrugged. “I was raised Irish Catholic. We just call him God. We look up to him and Jesus, the holy spirit and the angels and saints.”
“What are those?” Rinzler asked.
“Jesus is the son of God. The Holy Spirit is kind of hard to explain, but said to bring Jesus down to Earth to be born. Saints are Users that had done miraculous things. Angels are powerful beings. There are archangels and guardian angels-“
“Guardian?”
“Those are different, once again it depends on who you ask. Some of them have always been angels and others are the souls of the departed who watch over their loved ones.”
-
“Tron?” The voice spoke to him again.
“Flynn?” Rinzler asked.
“That’s right, buddy. I know you are in pain. We are going to help take care of that. We are going to save this system. You are a hero. Remember who you fight for.”
“I fight for-“ Another surge of pain shot through him.
Osiris is your master, Osiris is your master. There are no Users. You are Rinzler. You serve your master Osiris.
Rinzler screamed and thrashed at the air in front of him.
“Tron,” Flynn spoke to him.
“Shut up,” Rinzler snarled. “You are not a User, you never were. I will not be corrupted. I fight for Osiris.” He grabbed at his fallen disks and ran towards the two enemy programs who called themselves Sam and Yori. He jumped into the air, did a somersault and began his decent down, ready to derezz them with a single swipe.
-