-
Sam couldn’t breath. He could not see, hear, nor even feel. A part of him wanted to scream but without air that was impossible. Luckily for him that feeling only lasted for a few seconds. He inhaled deeply and out loud when he was able to open his mouth and allowed the air to rush into his lungs. He could hear a soft hum and several blips and beeps and when he opened his eyes he realized he was in a dark room with silvery blue halls that were illuminated by a few glowing white floor tiles and the colored neon.
He still couldn’t feel his legs although he could feel the hairs on his arms stand on end. Gravity was playing with him and he found himself toppling over.
“Whoa.” Sam’s arm’s windmilled around as he placed one foot in front of him in hopes that it would steady himself.
“Gotcha,” the other Sam said as he grabbed one of Sam’s arms with one hand. He had something else in his other hand. A flat black Frisbee with hole in the center.
“Are you all right?” Quorra asked. She was holding onto Sam’s other shoulder and also had a similar disk.
“I’m fine,” Sam told them. “I’m just regaining the feeling in my legs.”
“It is pretty disorienting for the first time,” Sam Flynn told him. “Castiel?”
“I’m fine,” Castiel said. He stood a foot away from Sam and did not appear to suffer from any of the effects at all.
“Where’s my stuff?” Sam asked and looked down. He could see both his bag and rifle lying down in front of him. He reached down to pick them up, only to pull back in horror as hundreds of tiny glowing ones and zeros crawled across his gear like a swarm of ants. “What the hell?” Sam took several steps backwards, tripped and fell on his bottom.
“I don’t think it will hurt us,” Flynn said as the binary crawled up on him and Quorra.
“You don’t think?” Sam had his voice raised as he crawled backwards but he didn’t scream.
The numbers were too fast. They slithered across Sam’s feet and hands and covered his body within seconds. Sam’s scream was cut off by the fact they didn’t hurt. He couldn’t feel them but he knew they were doing something. Several of the binaries turned black while a few others grew brighter. He could feel his clothes stretching, melting and reshaping themselves.
“What the hell?” Sam asked when it stopped. He stared at his hands and the white gloves that covered them. They were almost fingerless. The index and ring finger only covered the fingers up to the middle and the middle finger still had the tip exposed. There were thick, glowing, blue bars that were across the backs of his hands and went up his arms that were covered in the same white material. His chest and stomach had more of the glowing bars. His pants matched his chest and he had a black belt and boots that also contained more of the glowing lights. Only the black short sleeved jacket he wore over his top was devoid of any glow.
“The system was just equipping you,” Flynn said. He and Quorra were both decked out in glossy black suits with glowing blue lines.
“Oh.” Sam blinked and looked down at himself again. “You could have at least warned me.”
“We should have,” Quorra said in a sympathetic and sincere tone of voice. “Were sorry.”
Sam shrugged. “Don’t worry about it. I wonder what Cas looks like.” The thought made him smile.
His smile faded when he got a good look at the angel. Castiel still looked like a tax accountant. The only difference was that the lapels and the cuffs of his jacket was illuminated along with a single line down each leg.
“Is something wrong, Sam?” Cas asked.
“Nothing,” Sam said and figured that Cas not getting the full new wardrobe treatment was due to his being an angel. “And call me Winchester to avoid confusion.”
Cas nodded. “I’ll remember, Sam Winchester.” He picked up his bag that now had a glowing blue line around the border.
Sam went for his bag and shotgun except his weapon was replaced with a strange metal baton. “What is this?”
“I think it’s your gun,” Quorra said. “I saw it transform into that.”
“This place is insane,” Sam said as he retrieved both items.
“We are not alone,” Cas said and nodded to one end of the hallway.
Sam heard muttered talking and a few footsteps. He aimed his rifle turned flashlight at the direction of the voices. His eyes darted to Flynn and Quorra as they held up there disks. The outer and inner edges of both became illuminated
“You need to get off my backup,” a young man walked into the area, decked out in the same glowing blue neon as the rest of them. He was staring at a multi faceted silver object that was floating next to him.
“No.” The floating object changed shape becoming spiky and became a metallic red in color.
“Why am I not surprised?” The young man said and rolled his eyes before he turned to face them. “Greetings new programs and welcome to the ENCOM system. I am your welcome committee. I am Sai.”
“Sai?” Flynn asked.
“Seek, associate and instruct,” Sai explained. “I find the new programs when they arrive, make certain they have their identity disk, tell them what is going on in the system and help them find where they are supposed to be so they can run their functions smoothly.”
“We’re not pr-“ Cas was about to spill the beans and would have if Quorra hadn’t run up to him and placed her hand over his mouth.
“Don’t mind them,” Flynn said. “Quorra and I already have Identity Disks.”
“I see you were written in different systems and uploaded here,” Sai said. “What about your friends?”
“They need them,” Flynn said and pointed in Sam and Cas’s direction.
“We’ll get them equipped,” Sai said and motioned for them to follow him.
“I like your bit,” Quorra told the program.
“Ha,” the floating object said.
“I thought they can only say yes and no,” Flynn said as he stared at the object.
“That only goes for bits,” the object said.
“This is a byte.” Sai pointed at it and gave it an annoyed glance. “I wish I was with a bit. Things would be more quiet.”
“I doubt it,” the byte said.
“I guess instead of just positive and negative they come in a variety of moods,” Flynn said.
“Except this one is always set to snark,” Sai said.
“Is there a chew and a swallow?” Cas asked as he kept his eyes on the byte.
“What?” Sai asked.
“Ignore him,” Flynn said. “His User tried to implement some humor when he wrote him.”
“I don’t follow,” Cas said.
“Just let it go,” Sam told him.
“Okay I need to know something,” Flynn said and dropped back until he was walking next to the angel. “If you don’t understand what we are talking about then how did you get into the Grid?”
“I thought you just teleported in,” Sam said.
“Without a vessel I would have,” Cas said. “I needed to use the laser to transport into the Grid.”
“How did you activate the laser?” Flynn asked.
“The machine turned on when I touched it,” Cas explained. “It asked me who I was. I pressed the letters on the screen that spelled my name.”
“And when that didn’t work?” Flynn asked.
“I pressed the same letters as the sign outside,” Cas answered and stared Flynn in his eyes. “Your name and then I pressed Y twice.”
“That’s all it needs?” Sam asked. He could not someone like Kevin Flynn would have made such an easy password.
“Yeah.” Flynn grimaced. “I need to go and change the settings.” He blinked and turned back to Cas. “What do you mean by vessel?”
“My true form would burn out your eyes and you would not be able to hear what I have to say,” Cas explained. “I’m borrowing a human form.”
“You’re possessing someone?”
“With permission,” Sam said.
“Here we are.” Sai said as they stopped in front of a wall with several glowing lines and buttons. “Let me just tell it we have two here.” He typed something into the buttons.
“I could process it much faster,” the byte said.
“You don’t even have any fingers,” Sai said to it and pressed one last button. Two CD disk drive trays popped out. Each one had a disk similar to what Flynn and Quorra had inside it.
“Thanks,” Flynn said and grabbed one of them. “There will be a tingling sensation, Winchester.” He walked behind Sam.
Sam nodded and felt something press against his back and heard a snap. He watched as Quorra had taken the other disk and placed it against Cas’s back. There were a few beeps behind him and his vision was filled with light while he felt a tingle shoot down his spine. When his vision cleared he saw Cas blink.
“Your eyes were filled with white light for a second,” Cas said. “Just your pupils though.”
“You blinked,” Sam said. “Whatever that was it was enough to make you blink.”
“Now that you have been equipped what is your function?” Sai asked.
“The four of us are security programs,” Flynn said. “Quorra and I know how to run our functions and we can show Winchester and Cas around since they are new.”
“Don’t look much like security programs,” Byte said.
“That’s enough out of you,” Sai said as he pointed at it. “If you understand then don’t let me stop you, just stay off the radar of the new Master Control.”
“New Master Control?” Flynn asked in a worried tone.
“Yeah he’s managed to take over ENCOM’s LAN, but he seems to be preoccupied with a few other tasks. There are other regular security programs who haven’t been repurposed by him who still run their diagnostics.”
“Keep your nose low,” Byte said. “Don’t grab his attention. Don’t anger him.”
“Sounds like good advice,” Flynn said.
“I know you probably know your way around the system,” Sai said to them as they left. “But there are several terminals in the sales area that have some tracking cookies that need a look at.”
“We’ll check it out,” Flynn said as he looked over his shoulder.
“Can’t they just eat the cookies?” Cas asked.
“Different kind of cookie,” Sam said.
“There’s a new MCP?” Quorra asked.
“It’s Luduserus,” Cas said in a worried tone. “We have to find Dean before he finds us.”
-
Dean closed his eyes and leaned back. He was not able to see anything where he was positioned in the Recognizer but he could still feel it move. If he imagined he was in a car and not up in the air then he could cope. He kept telling himself he was in a van, he was in a van, he was in a van. That was ridiculous. The programs were able to climb up and down between the levels. This thing was a double decker. That’s it. He was in a double-decker bus. Planes were not like that.
“Need help getting through this?” Gabe asked him.
“Wish I had some Dramamine,” Dean said and opened one eye and stared at the rodent.
“You feel like you are going to throw up?”
“No.” That was a half lie. The fact that he was up in the air was enough to freak out to the point of nausea, but there was nothing in his stomach to puke up. The liquid energy he had consumed had been filtered into his system, not a single drop was wasted. He had yet to feel the urge to use the bathroom. “I just need it to knock me out.”
“I could always do that.” Gabe held up a finger.
“No that’s fine.”
“Maybe what you need is someone to hold your hand.” He grabbed Dean’s hand and gave it a pat.
“Maybe I do.” Dean pulled away from the former trickster. “But not by you.”
“Oh ouch. You wound me.”
“Someone is wounded?” Lia asked as she stepped down from the upper level. She was followed by Tron and Yori who were holding hands.
“He was just joking,” Dean said as he looked up at the programs.
“Are you feeling any better?” Tron asked.
“I am when I’m tricking my own brain,” Dean said.
“He does need someone to hold his hand,” Gabe said and reached for him again.
“I would rather have Tron to hold my hand.” He closed his eyes again and opened them when he felt someone grab his hand. It was Lia.
“I’m sorry you feel this fear,” Lia said. Her voice was soft with concern.
“Where are we going?” Tron asked. “Why is it taking this long to find our destination?”
“They are trying to find a port out of the system,” Yori said. “One that isn’t blocked off.”
“You really are giving me the first class treatment,” Dean said as he smiled at Lia. “We only exchanged a few words and you are doing this.”
“I think it’s cause of what you are,” Gabe told him and placed his hand on his shoulder.
“Really?” He stared at Gabe. The angel couldn’t be serious. “I’m not the only User here.”
“You were the first one who was honest with me,” Lia said. “You told me your real name instead of the name of your character. You were different from the others and you told me Tron was here. It gave everyone hope when I reported to everyone.”
“I just did that by telling you my name and the fact that I returned with him?” He pointed a thumb at his friend. “Because I didn’t pretend that I was still playing that douche bag game?”
“What’s a douche bag?” Tron asked and turned to Yori when she giggled. “You know what one is?”
“It’s something female Users use to clean their more intimate areas,” Yori explained. “Although it isn’t really good for them.”
“How did you know?” Dean asked.
“I learned it from traveling around the web,” Yori explained. “And sometimes the information comes to us.”
“I guess you don’t surf the web much, Tron.”
“Flynn’s private Grid was cut off from the world,” the security program explained. “I was cut off from all other systems, the world wide web and this system.” He stared at Yori. “I was cut off from you.” He ran his fingers through her hair before he turned back to Dean. “Dean, you made it possible for us to reunite again.”
“Don’t mention it,” Dean said. “I’m pretty sure whoever is in charge of that Grid would have brought you back.”
“The son of Flynn could have, but he didn’t. You did.”
“Damn.” Dean smiled and shook his head. “I’m not used to this kind of flattery.”
“Your not?” Gabe asked. “The people you saved usually give you a thank you.”
“Thank you for saving my kid. Thank you for stopping that monster from stealing my husband’s soul. Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for saving our town. That is the kind of gratitude I’m used to.”
“You save other Users?” Lia asked softly.
Dean shrugged. “I try to save them with my brother’s help. There are nasty things out there and we do our best to fight back.”
“I knew you were different.” She squeezed his hand. Was she coming on to him? He could not believe it. Would a program flirt with a User just like that?
Dean’s stomach plummeted along with the Recognizer. His grip on Lia’s hand increased along with his heart rate.
“What the hell is going on?” Gabe asked.
“I’ll find out,” Yori offered and climbed the stairs. She nearly fell when the aircraft changed direction once again but Tron was there to catch her. “What are you doing?” she practically shouted into the opening.
“One of their ships is after us,” a program told them. “We are trying to get away.”
“Dean, I’m so sorry,” Lia said.
“Not…your…fault.” Dean gulped and closed his eyes. He held onto Lia with one hand and gripped the floor with his other as he felt the Recognizer fly around. The moves the air craft made with the rising, descending and turning made Dean feel like he was on a roller coaster. That was actually a bit better. He could handle it.
And suddenly as it had started it stopped. Dean let out a breath of air he had lodged in his chest for a minute. It was over.
“You seem happy,” Gabe told him.
“We are not moving.” Dean smiled. “We stopped.”
“That’s because they caught us, genius.”
“Son of a bitch.”
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