-
Dean woke up when he heard Guns and Roses start blaring through the alarm clock radio the hotel provided. He felt his brother’s arm across his chest and could hear the sound of both Sam’s and Tron’s breathing, which was a little odd.
The first night Tron made that odd purring sound when he slept, the second there was still the purring with a few slight skips and last night in the hotel in Arizona Dean heard a mix of purrs and normal breathing sounds. When Dean woke up around four in the morning he heard a few broken purrs before it was mostly breathing. He hoped nothing was wrong with the program.
“Sam,” Dean grumbled as he tried to roll away from his brother and nearly fell onto the floor. “Move.”
“Wha?” Sam mumbled.
“Wake up and move your arm. Get it off of me.”
“What’s your problem?” Sam asked as he rolled over.
“Don’t put your arm on me.” Dean sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Wake up, we got to get ready.”
“And I’m the grumpy bear.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Time to get up. We have a big day today.” He clapped his hands.
The breathing sounds from Tron stopped followed by him murmuring “Hmm?”
“Rise and shine, program man.” Dean told him.
“Morning?” Tron mumbled as he shifted under the covers.
“Yeah.” Dean stood up.
The program grunted and blinked his eyes. His manner of waking up was not the same as it was those nights in Wichita Falls. Something was wrong.
“Good morning,” Tron half mumbled as he sat up. He stretched his arms out and yawned, something else he hadn’t done.
“Are you feeling all right?” Dean asked him.
“I feel like I’m in optimum condition,” Tron told him.
Dean shrugged. Sometimes computers were slow to start up. Sam had told him it was because they were full of junk files and needed to have their browser tool cleaned of the junk. Maybe Tron was going through something similar.
The thought of Tron’s condition had left Dean’s mind as soon as he had finished his shower and half dressed in the suit he was going to wear that day. As he dressed he remembered the previous day. They had stopped at this one minor tourist attraction in the Mojave that had some tanks. A lot of people took pictures of it. Dean asked someone to take a picture of the four of them together. He remembered the other pictures that Sam had thought Tron would appreciate and pictures that Tron had asked him to take. One of those pictures was outside of Flynn’s arcade.
As soon as Dean had stepped out of the bathroom he was greeted by the heavenly aroma of coffee and donuts. He had no idea who went on a donut run since he was only in the bathroom for twenty minutes. His answer came in the form of Castiel who was setting the bags and the tray down on the table.
“Cas, have I told you, you are my favorite angel?” Dean asked as he grabbed on of the cups.
“They are all black,” Cas explained as opened up the smallest of the bags. “I’m not sure how everyone wanted their coffee. There are creams and sugars in here.”
“Is the shower free?” Tron asked.
“All yours,” Dean told him and grabbed one of the chocolate covered donuts.
“Might want to eat first,” Sam told him. “Grab a donut before Dean eats them all.”
Dean rolled his eyes. He would have made a come back, if his mouth wasn’t full of sweet fried goodness. He tried not to eat all of the chocolate ones and knew to stay clear of the ones covered in powdered sugar since those were Sam’s favorite, but he didn’t have to worry about upsetting anyone. Castiel gravitated towards the glazed, even though he didn’t really need to eat and only did it for the taste, and Tron seemed to favor the cinnamon coated ones.
After he had his fill Tron showered and this time he did not take so much time getting clean. Dean figured he understood the importance of today. The first few times the program showered he took an hour, only because he loved the way it felt. He had described it as a warm rain. Apparently they did not need to shower in this Grid world.
“I have a small problem,” Tron said when he came out of the shower. He was almost fully dressed. He just needed his tie and his socks and shoes.
“What’s wrong?” Sam asked.
“I can’t get the dirt off my face,” Tron said. His chin and jaw-line was pink from scrubbing too hard.
“I don’t see any dirt,” Dean said as he grabbed one of the spare ties. As he adjusted the tie he studied Tron’s face. There wasn’t any dirt, just the first sign of facial hair. It was there, but just under the skin line, not worth shaving and trying would only cause pain. It seemed that programs did grow facial hair, but much more slowly than humans. “Don’t worry about it.”
“We should go,” Cas said. He was staring at the program with his head tilted.
“Everyone ready?” Dean asked. He waited for the rest of the men to agree before he grabbed his wallet and keys. “Then let’s dance.”
-
Dean stared up at the ENCOM tower. “Here we are.” He felt stupid saying that, but being up close to the main headquarters of the corporation it was the only words that jumped out from him.
“Is this your birthplace, Tron?” Sam asked.
“In a matter of speaking,” Tron answered his voice sounded strained and Dean could tell he was excited and possibly nervous. “The headquarters was where Alan-One created me.”
“Stay cool everyone,” Dean said as he held up his hand. “Follow me.” He entered the building. It didn’t impress him much on the inside. The floor was covered in shiny black and white tiles. There were several plants in brass pots, both fake and real and there were framed promotional pictures on the wall. It was the basic standard decorum for every major corporation building. There was even the company sign behind the long desk that had several receptionists. He approached the one that wasn’t on the phone.
“May I help you?” The woman asked as she looked up from her typing. She was in her early thirties and had her dark hair tied up in a bun.
“I’m agent Jason Brady with the FBI,” Dean said as he held up his badge. “This is my partner, Lee Sheridan.” He nodded at Tron. “Fellow agents, Clay Forrester and Jacob Wheeler.” He nodded at his brother and Cas.
The receptionist’s eyes widened and her mouth formed into a tight little “O”. “I don’t think we were expecting the FBI to show up.”
“We don’t always phone ahead ma’am,” Dean said. “We need to speak with the ones in charge and those who are head of the gaming department.”
“May I ask what this is about?” The receptionist asked.
Dean shook his head. “FBI business, ma’am.”
She nodded. “Betty this is Karen. Is Mr. Flynn available? There are four agents with FBI here.” She paused. “They want to speak with him and the gaming department.” Another pause. “You are going to come down and your sending Ms. Keys down as well? Thank you.” She hung up. “Someone will be with you shortly.”
“Thanks,” Dean said.
They didn’t have to wait long. An elevator opened and two women stepped out. One was a brunette with her hair pinned up and red framed glasses. The other was younger, about Sam’s age, maybe even younger than him. She had real dark hair cut short, but not symmetrical. One side was longer than the other.
Dean heard someone step behind him as if they were trying to hide behind him.
“Ice Oh girl,” Tron hissed in his ear.
“I’m Betty Evans,” the woman with the glasses said. “I’m the personal secretary of Samuel Flynn. He’s in a meeting right now but it’s almost over.”
“We’ll wait for him in his office,” Sam said. “Agent Brady and Sheridan will go speak with gaming.”
“They can come with me,” the younger woman said. She held out her hand. “I’m Quorra Keys.”
“Nice to meet you Ms Keys,” Dean said and shook her hand.
“Please call me Quorra. This way to the gaming department.” She pointed towards a different elevator.
Dean nodded at his brother and Cass before he followed after Quorra. He felt like he was the only one following her and looked over his shoulder. Tron just stood there, staring at the young woman in fear.
“Agent Sheridan?” Dean addressed him. “You are with me.”
Tron smiled weakly and followed after him. Dean had no idea what was that about and when they were alone he was going to ask him.
-
Dean knew they had reached the gaming department when he looked up and saw the framed promotional posters of popular ENCOM games. He paused when he came across a picture of Skip Chinchilla, the company’s fuzzy mascot since 1992.
Skip looked the same the last time Dean saw him. His almost solid gray fur had a white fuzzy chest and snout. His long round ears pointed up and thick and fluffy tail was waving in an invisible breeze. The stripe of crimson red hair on his head was mostly slicked back save for a few spiked bangs. He wore his usual ensemble of black fingerless gloves and boots, red bandana wrapped around his neck and his bright red backpack. Skip’s bright blue eyes were narrowed as he faced his opponent. Instead of the usual and ridiculous Captain Strife, villainous space pirate, Skip was up against a shadowy creature with glowing eyes and fangs.
“Do you like it?” Quorra asked. “Its from the new game Skip’s Midnight Story.”
“Where’s Captain Strife?” Dean asked.
“I heard he is in it, but they want to focus on a new villain,” Quorra explained. “We are going for a new darker and edgier feel.”
“Everyone wants to go darker and edgier,” Dean said. “Do you work in gaming, Ms. Keys?”
“I’m more of an office assistant,” Quorra explained. “I sometimes give tours.” She led them to a large room with double doors. “They are pretty busy lately.” She knocked on the doors. “Something about a mystery quest that keeps appearing.”
“Come in,” a voice said on the other side.
The room was filled with several desks and terminals. Everyone in there had headsets and was typing furiously. Their faces were stern with concentration.
“What are you doing here, Ms Keys,” one of the men said without looking up. He was somewhere in his mid to late thirties, very pale and almost scrawny. His light brown hair was slicked back with either gel or it’s own natural greasy oils. Dean couldn’t tell.
“These men wish to speak with you, Mr. Reece.” Quorra told him.
“Tell them we are busy.”
Dean cleared his throat. “Were agents Jason Brady and Lee Sheridan with the FBI.” He and Tron showed them their badges even though the program couldn’t seem to keep his eyes off Quorra. Ah that was it. Tron had a crush on her.
“The FBI?” Mr. Reece whispered and looked up at him.
“We are investigating several people who went missing in the past week,” Dean explained since Tron was apparently tongue-tied. “We feel there is a connection with the mystery quest of your Epic Frontier game.”
“Surely you don’t believe we are responsible,” Reece said as he stood up.
“Everyone who disappeared played the mystery quest,” Dean told him.
“We didn’t create this quest. Someone hacked into the system and copied the moves and everything and developed this quest.” He pointed at the rest of the people in the world. “This is what we have been doing the past few days.”
“There is a code,” Quorra said.
“And nobody has been able to crack it,” Reece said in a defeated tone.
“We have to find the code,” Quorra said in a determined tone. “We have to help those people. They could be in trouble, they could be hurt.”
“Ms Keys,” Reece stared at her. “I don’t believe there is a connection and even if we did find the password we still won’t be able to find those who went missing.”
“But we have to help them,” Quorra said.
“We appreciate your concern,” Dean said as he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “But this is our job.” He did have to admire her determination. She did seem to feel that ENCOM was connected to the multiple disappearances, but she didn’t know for certain that t here was a demon in the system, did she? There was something odd about her. Tron called her an Ice Oh girl and Dean thought that was program slang for a female program that was hot.
“We have the password,” Tron said.
“You do?” Reece asked and turned at them.
“Alan?” Quorra asked at the same time. She tried to look at Tron, but once again the program tried to hide behind Dean.
“Yeah we got it,” Dean said as he pulled out the paper that had the code written on it. “At least we think we do. We were informed there was connection here.”
“Give me that,” Reece said and tried to snatch the paper from his hands.
“Sorry sir,” Dean said as he pulled away. “Until we are sure what this does it is unsafe for civilians.”
“Are you serious?”
“I think we should listen to them,” Quorra said.
“What are you going to do with that?” Reece sneered at him.
“I’m going to log onto the game with it,” Dean said. He did not like the way this geek was talking to him. “I’m going to see what it does.”
“What’s your character?”
“I don’t have one.”
“You are going to try and get into a secret quest with a level one character?” Reece tried to keep from laughing. “You will be killed within seconds.”
“You are right. I’ll just borrow one of yours if you have any.”
Reece stared at him. “You can’t do that.”
“I think he can,” Quorra said. “He’s an FBI agent.”
“And he’s abusing his power.”
“It’s for a good cause. He wants to find those people.”
“And that has nothing to do with the game.”
“He can borrow mine,” one of the younger members of the group said. He was younger than Reece by about ten years. He had slightly long hair and wore thick glasses. “I’m a level thirty elf.”
“Thank you,” Dean said. “How do I get in?”
“I’ll get you in,” the geeky employee said and got up from his chair. “Just move your mouse over these little pictures. The one that looks like a sack holds all your items. The dagger has your weapon arsenal, the diamond holds your money, the little bird will show you how many animal companions you have” He moved the arrow up. “Here is your health, here is your rank, here is your spark level.”
“Spark level?” Dean asked as he sat down.
“Magic energy,” the guy explained. The name on the nametag was Stan Pierson.
“Where can I enter the code?”
“Make Trillident go to the community board.”
“Who? Oh your elf character.” Dean clicked on what looked like large flat wooden sign that probably served as a kiosk. His elf ran up to it.
“Now click on the quest list,” Stanley explained. “There will be a key with a question mark on it.”
“Okay,” Dean said and clicked on it. A message appeared on the screen asking for a password. “Here we go.” He turned around to face Stan in the group. “I need to commandeer this area for a bit. Stan and my partner are the only ones who can stay.”
“Now wait a minute,” Reece said as he pointed his finger at him.
“You heard him,” Tron said as he pointed to the doors.
“Everyone needs to leave,” Quorra said and glared at Reece.
All of the other tech members and game developers that were in the large room got up and walked out, Reece, Quorra and Stan were the only ones who remained with Tron and Dean.
“Mr. Reece you will have to leave,” Quorra said.
“Fine, but I am going to make sure Mr. Dillinger hears about this and don’t think you can get away with this because you are dating the CEO.”
“She’s dating Sam Flynn?” Dean muttered.
“Yeah,” Stan shrugged. “We don’t mind because he is a pretty cool boss.”
“Ms Keys could you watch the entrance for us?” Dean asked as he typed in the password. “Make sure nobody disturbs us?” He made the selection for single player and watched as a mountain appeared.
“Yes sir,” Quorra said.
“I guess I enter the cave,” Dean said as he made the elf enter inside.
The game was pretty simple. He used weapons and items to fight against various small monsters and used other items to heal him and restore his spark level.
“You need to put some drunk weed next to thar skull cat,” Stan instructed when Dean reached a giant wild cat like creature that seemed to not have any fur or skin on it’s head.. “It looks like a clump of pink grass.”
“Got it.” Dean went through the item list and plopped down the weed. He continued to a lake with a skiff and a creepy looking guy who wanted a glow stone. Once again Dean went through the items.
“Flat gray stone with bright white outline,” Stan said.
“Thank you again.” Dean gave him the stone and took the skiff out. He wasn’t sure where to go from there until a tall man that looked like it was made out of water appeared in the middle of the lake. “That would be the water monster.”
“They are weak against weapons and items made from plants.”
Dean found a wooden boomerang and some plant based bombs and used them against the monster. He used his wooden shield to block the attacks from the monster and when his energy went low he refilled it with a food based item.
“Uh dude?” Stan asked in a worried tone When Dean was more than halfway done with killing the beast. “Your hands are glowing.”
“This is what happened to the others,” Dean said as he remembered Joey’s description.
“I don’t like this,” Tron told him. “You need to get up.”
“Gotta find Luduserus,” Dean said as he continued fighting.
“Dean it’s spreading,” Tron’s voice grew frantic.
“Dean?” Stan asked. “I thought it was Jason Brady.”
Dean did not break his concentration, not even when he felt Tron’s hands grip his shoulders. He was not going to give up fighting this creature.
“Get out of here,” Tron cried out.
“Don’t need to tell me twice,” Stan said as he ran away. There was the sound of the doors opening and slamming shut.
The doors opened again “What’s going on?” Quorra asked.
“Ice Oh girl,” Tron shouted. “Find Sam Flynn. Tell him it’s got us.”
“Got what?” Dean asked as he delivered the fatal blow to the monster.
“Get the son of Flynn,” Tron shouted again.
“It can’t be,” Quorra gasped. “Rinzler?”
“Get help now.” Tron’s shout was the last thing Dean heard before his vision was filled with blue light and that was only for a few seconds before everything went dark.
-
A/N: The title is based on an 80’s action drama series called Scarecrow and Mrs. King that starred Bruce Boxleitner. Tron’s alias did come from that show along with the name of Bruce’s character from Babylon 5. All the aliases were from characters that were played by Jensen, Jared and Misha.