Chapter 5: Mysterious Rescuer
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Janelle kept floating through what she viewed as the technological version of Mordor, feeling dejected and useless. She was unable to rescue Alan from those minions of hell and that was after she failed from keeping Alan from being beamed into this nightmare and of course her first failure was with the fact that she couldn’t warn Alan, Adrian and the others in time about Junior’s little viral take over.
“I am pathetic,” Janelle said as she glided past another building. “I can’t do anything right. Some guardian spirit I turned out to be.”
She looked at her arm where she was shocked. The glowing red mark that was there earlier had faded. That wasn’t what got to her. She felt the pain. She felt the burning surge course through her. That was impossible. How was she able to feel pain? She was able to avoid it earlier, maybe she was becoming more accustomed to her prison. Souls that got sent here did face an eternal punishment of torture and pain.
“I do belong here, don’t I?”
“No.” The voice was almost shrill and sounded it had been electronically altered. It also sounded like it came from behind her and above her.
Janelle turned herself around. Floating behind her was an odd metallic. It seemed like a dodecahedron in shape. The silver object reflected nearly everything that glowed off it’s multi faceted surface, resembling a Christmas ornament. That thing couldn’t have just talked to her.
“Did you just talk?”
“Yes.” It turned to a metallic golden color as it shifted into more of a diamond like shape, like something out of those Sims games.
“What are you?” Janelle asked after she overcame her shock and was greeted with silence. “Were you following me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” Again she was greeted with silence. “You don’t say much, do you?”
“No.” It shifted into a metallic red spiky shape.
“Is that all you can say, just yes and no?”
“Yes.”
“Okay then.” Janelle tilted her head to the side. She was going to have to keep her questions simple. “Where you following me long?”
“Yes.”
“Are you my guide around here?”
“Yes. No.”
“So that is a yes and no.” She held up her hand. “Don’t answer that.” She glanced around here. She almost thought she saw something moving in the distance. “Have you been listening to me talk to myself?”
“Yes.”
“So you have heard everything?”
“Yes.”
“And you think I don’t belong here?”
“Yes.”
“I guess you don’t understand then.” She wondered how it couldn’t know when it was sort of her guide. “This is the bad place. This is where they send bad people.”
“No.”
“This isn’t Hell?”
“No. Yes.”
“I’m not going to get all the answers that I need then,” she said softly, more to herself. “Do you know someone who can tell me what’s going on?”
“Yes.”
“Can they help my friend?”
“Yes.” As it answered several more objects similar to it floated into view.
“More of you?”
“Yes.” The all answered in unison.
“You don’t all have to talk at once,” Janelle said. “So where is this person who can help.”
The glowing objects arranged themselves till they formed into an arrow pointing to the northeast.
“Thank you,” Janelle said as she followed them. This might turn out to be easier than she had thought.
They were not traveling long when the floating things broke up from their arrow. “No! No! No! No! No!”
Janelle took note of their alarmed tone and froze. She focused on keeping herself as smoky and non-corporeal as possible. It was just in the nick of time as something black and red sliced through her mid section. She watched as the disk spun around and returned to the one who threw it.
She turned as another came at her and she ducked, not that she really needed to. She made herself jump and float up an inch as another flew underneath her feet. There were three of the soldiers and all were throwing odd glowing disks at her.
She was never really good at athletics. She wasn’t the fastest runner when she was alive and did not have what it takes when it came to kicking a ball, or swinging a bat or making a basket. The one thing she was good at was the Frisbee. When her father brought the family to ENCOM’s family picnics and barbecues she would dominate over the others at Frisbee games. While one of the last to be picked for a team other sports she was the first when they did things like Frisbee golf or Frisbee baseball.
“Just have to be fast enough,” Janelle said. As soon as one came close to reach she will try to catch it, will herself solid enough until she could come into contact.
The disks kept flying around her and through her and she was not able to catch one. She was good at dodging them. If she could keep herself solid enough for just long enough to grab one while dodging the others she wouldn’t have to worry about getting hurt again, that is if that first time wasn’t a fluke.
She grabbed one from the air and was ready to throw it at one of the armored soldiers when she felt a jolt from behind.
“Hey,” she spun around to see three more guards with their long glowing red weapons pointed at her.
Something sliced through the neck of one of the guard’s, causing his body to dissemble into what looked like pixilated black cubes before he faded away. The disk flew back just as a second one slammed into a disk of a guard.
Janelle stepped back to watch as that same disk slice through the chest of the guard before it returned. She tried to find who threw it but couldn’t. The same two disks flew through again. One of the guards was able to duck but the second wasn’t so lucky.
Janelle threw the one disk that she had grabbed at another guard. He ducked but she managed to catch it and throw it at another and killed it the same manner as the others had. She turned around to take care of the last two but the mysterious stranger had already taken care of them.
Several more came rushing towards her, or rather them now. Just as they had caught up someone dressed entirely in black, including a black glossy helmet slid forward on his knees between two of the soldiers. As he stood up he pulled out two disks, the sharp edge caught against the bottom of the soldiers and slid up along with their owner, cutting in deep. The two dissolved like the others.
Janelle through her stolen disk at another guard and watched as the other three tried to attack the mysterious figure. They were not fast enough, and neither was she as the one ducked at the last second.
The figure leaped through the air and spun around. He angled his body to avoid coming into contact with the disks.
Janelle threw her disk again at one of the distracted guards and focused her body to be smoky enough when one of the enemies disk came through her.
That same soldier dissolved as another disk cut through him. The same disk flew back to its owner who caught it as he landed and threw his other one.
That disk cut through the throat of one of the soldiers, slicing off the head before the body was erased.
Janelle used her disk to kill the last one. After catching it she turned to thank her rescuer but he was no where to be found
“Hello?” Janelle called out. “Whoever you are, thank you.”
Her rescuer jumped down in front of her. He was a tall man and like most of the people in this world his armor was adorned with glowing lights. There were not much glow on his armor, There were dashes and dots, a few lines resembling skeletal fingers on two of his gloves on each hand and three squares in a row with a fourth underneath the middle that was placed on his collar, resembling the letter “T”. Like the others his glow was red. He had a disk in each hand.
“Thank you,” Janelle said again.
The being made an odd sound, a strange growl that was almost a purr. It was enough to cause her to take a step back.
“Are you well?” She noticed how her voice warbled. Wait a second. She was supposed to be the scary one. “You are not with them are you?”
“User,” the figure said.
“No I didn’t OD, I drowned.” Did he know that she was a ghost?
“You are a User,” the being said. His voice sounded exactly like Alan’s. “You are not a program?”
“That’s what they called me,” Janelle said as she thought of Alan. Poor Alan, how was she going to rescue him?
The figure was panting as the lights on his suit flickered. The colors on his disks were blue-white. He slid the two disks together until they became one and he placed it on his back.
“Come with me if you want to live,” he said as he held out his hand to her.
“It’s a little late for that,” Janelle said as she grabbed his hand. “But I will come with you. I think you are the one I’m supposed to follow.”
“Yes.” One of her little friends had returned.
“I guess that settles it then,” she said as she followed the mystery man.
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Sam leaned back as Quorra drove them in her off grid Light Runner to the barrier that separated his father’s Grid from ENCOM’s LAN. He didn’t have to worry too much about the time. He had set the outside time for several hours outside in the real world, giving him more than enough time to help fix things from the inside.
“You are worried,” Quorra said to him after a few minutes of silence. “What’s on your mind?”
“I’m a little worried about Adrian and Alan,” Sam said as the neared what looked like a large and continuous black wall. “Dad told me how he first came into a Grid.”
“I believe the laser is secure. There was nothing to worry about.”
“Secure as long as there is no Master Control Program. They said they would never create a new one.”
“If there was one then it is not the fault of the employees.”
“We got to find where the virus is first and in order to find that we have to find a port.”
“What if they are on the corrupted side of the firewall?”
“Then we will fight our way through the corrupted part.”
The pulled up close to the wall and got out. The thing was enormous, reaching up to the clouds, keeping everything out, but something had managed to get in. They were told by a program to feel around for an access panel.
“Not here,” Dad’s voice carried through.
“Dad?” Sam asked.
“Keep to your left,” Dad instructed. “Keep going left until you reach the part that is illuminated and find the first access panel there.”
“Did you hear that?” Sam asked.
“I heard him,” Quorra said before she took off running in the direction of the left.
“Hey, wait,” Sam called after before he ran.
The two of them continue to run until they their legs hurt and they ran out of breath. They walked until their feet hurt, causing Sam to question why they had abandoned the runner.
“You both were too impulsive,” dad’s voice told them. “You thought it was going to be close.”
“Got me there,” Sam answered. “We should rest for a bit.”
“No,” Quorra said as pointed. It was distant, but she was pointed at a fake flickering glow.
Sam said nothing and followed after, quickening his pace until they both broke out into a run again and didn’t stop until the passed the edge of the glow. The top and bottom of the wall was illuminated with a bright green glow.
Finding the access panel wasn’t easy and it took what felt like another hour to Sam to find it.
“The access code is 59ac39ar…” She trailed off.
“an01d5,” Sam finished for her.
Quorra typed in the final bits of the code and stepped back as a door opened in the wall. She jumped through.
Sam did not wait to follow after her.
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Tron continued on his path. He hadn’t expected to find rogue programs in the old system. Flynn had yet to tell him why. He also didn’t tell him that there would be a User for him to rescue.
“Excuse me,” the User said from behind him. “Where are you going?”
He stopped. “I’m not certain.” Where was Flynn when he needed him?
“I-I need your help.” She walked in front of him. Her movements were more like gliding. “I don’t know who you are, but I really need your help.” She kept pointing at her head and she seemed afraid of something. It could have been fear for her friend, or it could have been for something else.
“Is it my helmet?” Tron asked. “Does it frighten you?”
“It is a little off putting,” the User said. “I can understand if you have been scarred and are a little self conscious about that.” She had no Identity Disk nor any armor. She wore a gown and her hair seemed to be weighed down with water. She looked like she was swimming. There was something off about her. Her whole body seemed to flicker at times and at other times she appeared transparent.
“In my recent past I wore it to strike fear into my enemies,” Tron answered. Those enemies were the ones he was supposed to have helped. “I wear it now so I won’t have to look at myself, but I will take it off.” He flicked at the side of his head causing his helmet to temporarily derezz itself.
The User stared at him for a few seconds with her mouth wide open. “Mr. Bradley?”
Tron blinked. That name meant something to him once. It was a name that was associated with the User who created him.
“Mr. Bradley is that really you? Did they give you some form of extreme makeover, one that gave you gymnastic skills?”
“Alan-One?”
“I’m sorry Alan. I had no idea what they did to you and you do look really good in this.” She reached out with her index finger and tried to touch one of Tron’s lights on his chest.
“Alan-One is the name of my User.” He grabbed her hand. “Please don’t touch me there.”
“He’s still in trouble.” Her expression changed to one of fear. “We have to find him.”
“Find who?”
“Alan,” the User answered. “We have to find Alan Bradley.”
“Alan is here?” Tron said. His User, his creator was somewhere in this system “He’s here?”
“They took him to some dome shaped building.” She pointed off into a different direction. “They are going to make him compete in some strange games.”
“The Game Grid.”
“I should of told you this sooner.” She covered her face with her hands. “I am an awful person.”
“No!” Several bits said at once.
“That doesn’t matter,” Tron told her. “What matters is we have to find him and rescue him and get you both out of the system.” Whatever mission Flynn wants him to do will have to wait. The Users come first.
“What do I call you?”
“I am called Tron.”
“Janelle Harper.” She held out her hand.
He took it. Her hand felt cold and damp but she held on firmly as they shook.
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