I don't own Tron or Disney and all that :/
I wrote this thing. There's just about 6000 words total, I'm going to post it in three chapters. Here's the first one. There may be spelling/grammar errors because there are too many words and you can only read something over so many times before you lose your mind. Tell me what you think?
Rated T for language, violence, and blood.
It poured, as it often did on The Grid. Randomized data, like what made up the sea, showered down in liquid form. The rain created halos around every building, every creature, every vehicle parked along the side of the quiet street. The air was thick with panting, and heavy frantic footsteps pounding out a steady beat against the ground. All noise making programs, the ones with breath enough to speak, had hurried indoors.
A man ran, his white cloak flying behind him as the black guards closed in, their circuits glowing like hellfire. They chased him up out of the woodwork, like bloodhounds sniffing out prey for their hunting master. He didn't know for how long he had been running, for longer than he had ever run in his life he was sure. He'd had never been particularly athletic.
He needed somewhere to hide, to rest for just a moment, but where?
Every window and door along the street had been locked, every program who might help him had shut themselves away.
Then he saw it, the door to a shop, it was open a crack. From the inside warm, golden light spilled out into the darkness. The sight was as welcoming to him as the smell of Lora's fresh baked pie wafting from the open kitchen door to their home, when he arrived from a stressful day.
During the summer, when she returned from her work in DC, she would try to do nice things like that for him while they still had time together. For that, Alan had been able to ignore the stench of something burning, and the murder of his good kitchenware. She was a genius scientist, but she hadn't always been the most brilliant cook.
They would have to lose sight of him first, just for a moment, so he could slip through the doorway. Alan abruptly turned to beeline town the ally just before the shop.
He circled around the back of the building, and in the split second when he was lost from view around the last corner, Alan disappeared. The guard turned the corner, and there was no one. They rushed out into the empty street, their mouse was nowhere in sight.
"Pavel sir, what do we do now?" One of the guards asked the group's leader.
"You four go up the street, the rest of us will go down it. There's only two directions for him to go, we'll find the User." Pavel ground out.
Zed was cleaning up the shop, doing his best to act like something was still normal, something was still ok. It was a shop that sold vehicle parts. He was polishing the counter top, and he lifted the Lightcycle break mechanism he'd left on the surface to clean the space beneath. He offered a weak attempt at a smile to his reflection in the gleaming material, his dark hair, his darker eyes.
Zed heard the door open, and the sound of soaked fabric as a program moved inside.
"Hey, we're closed-" He began, but stopped as he lifted his head.
A program leaned against the far wall for his support, his legs shook, just about to give out. Zed couldn't see his face, it was shadowed by his hood. His circuits flickered dangerously, black to white, black to white.
He opened his mouth to speak, but he didn't the breath the action would require, instead he gasped for air. Zed wasn't sure if the intruder was about to overheat or shut down from lack of energy.
Zed could here harsh voices through the walls, just outside. They were muffled, but he could make out enough words to determine they were hunting someone. If he were human, his heart would have been in his throat.
"You need energy." He exclaimed, feeling stupid the moment the words left his mouth, for pointing out the obvious. Zed crossed the room toward the stranger.
"Users, how can you even move?" He muttered. As he spoke the program's legs failed him. Zed caught him by the shoulders before he could crumble to the floor.
"I've got you buddy. Come with me, I'll get you something to drink."
He steered Alan in the direction of a side room. In the middle of a floor that closely resembled Tatami, was a low table barely a foot off the ground. He sat Alan down on one of the cushions strewn about the table.
Zed disappeared for a moment, and returned with two glasses of energy. Zed stopped in the doorway. Alan's clothing had miraculously dried, and Zed wondered at that for a moment, was he seeing things? He shook his head.
The pair of them sat across from one another for several micros. Zed watched Alan nervously as the stranger sipped his energy, not speaking. He couldn't even see the expression on his face, if it was content, suspicious, or hostile.
Zed was beginning to wonder if it had been such a good idea to invite a strange program into his home. He had no idea what his function was, maybe he had combat training. He was being chased, he could be a dangerous fugitive, what if he attacked him?
It was entirely likely, there was no such thing as a civil program in these times, not when they were all so desperate. It was a foolish, stupid stupid idea. Zed thought, he grit his teeth.
"So, tell me…" He ventured.
"Guest." Alan offered a random alias.
"Guest. How did you end up caught half derezzed in the rain like that, chased down by Tesler's soldiers? That must be an interesting story."
"It isn't that interesting actually. It's just past curfew, and energy deprived as I was, I couldn't get home quickly enough." It wasn't a lie, not completely. It was past curfew, but that hadn't been why the guard were chasing Alan.
"Rotten luck. Well, I'm glad you found my place in time. I let programs hide out here sometimes, they like to stay out late, going to clubs. I don't think they realize how dangerous that is. Tesler's soldiers target young programs like us for the games, makes for a more entertaining spectacle I gather…" Zed let himself trail off. He sighed. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling-"
Alan cut him off with a comment of his own.
"I haven't been in Argon long." His low, calm voice was unsettling. It was a strange sound, almost too clear, without the synthesized edge of most programs.
Zed nodded. It was a bit obvious the program had just wandered in from elsewhere. He looked out of place, certainly out of touch with the schedule the military had imposed.
"There must be something I can do to replay you." Alan entreated. Zed's eyes widened, taken aback.
"It was no big deal. You don't have to…" He trailed off as a hopeful thought occurred to him. "You don't happen to know any medic programs do you?"
Alan raised an eyebrow under his hood.
"Why? Are you injured?"
"No. My friend…" He tried to explain, but then thought it would be better just to show him. "Follow me."
Zed abruptly stood, wearing a serious, grim expression. Alan followed him through a pair of sliding automatic doors at the back of the room.
This room was dark, as they entered the circuits running through the walls flickered to life. The space was entirely bare except for a mattress, pressed up against the far wall. There was someone lying on it, beneath the thin blanket draped over the figure were the rising and falling curves of a female program. Was she sleeping?
Alan stepped closer, then he stumbled back. The woman was missing half her face and her arm on the same side. The wounds glowed a bright, bloody damage red. Alan could see inside a hollow shell made of those silvery blocks.
There was nothing there but a blue something, a flame. Alan was reminded of the egyptians and their belief that every human had a flame in their chest, their soul and life force. When the flame died, the person died. This flame wavered, like a stubborn birthday candle blown out, and then relighting itself. As the flame flickered, so did her circuits.
The sight was oddly disturbing, Alan felt dizzy with nausea.
"Her name's Mara." Zed's voice came from behind him, small and quiet. "It's… all programs with medical programming cater to Clu's armies. They wouldn't treat her, I can't let them find her… I don't know what to do." Zed admitted, shaking his head, miserable. He'd never felt so helpless, so useless in his life.
"Let me have a look." Alan held his hand out expectantly. The program glanced nervously at Alan's open hand.
"Guest I… you understand I don't want to give her disk to a stranger, you could do anything to her-"
"What about a friend? You saved my life, please let me return the favor. You would have given her disk to an unknown medic."
Zed hesitated, he bit his lip.
"Do you want her to derez without any chance, will you give up that easily?"
Zed flinched. Alan hadn't meant to shout, but he was tired and he hadn't had the greatest day either. He was impatient and he just wanted someone to listen for once, for two seconds before more people started dying.
He thought, in the short time he'd spent on this strange world, he'd had enough death to count him set for the rest of his lives. This one and whatever came next, then after that.
Zed shook his head, as if to clear it. She would derez anyway if he didn't try something, did it matter? They didn't have anything to lose. He crouched, and unclipped the disk from Mara's back.
"Be careful with it." He cautioned, anxiety lining his face. Zed set the disk into the User's waiting hand with a carefulness like he was handling a priceless, porcelain artifact.
Alan sat down on the floor in front of the mattress, disk in his lap. He activated the holographic interface. Zed dropped down next to him, watching closely for any sign that this 'Guest' would betray him.
Alan got to work in a blur of fingers, darting and looping through the air across Mara's code. Zed tried but he couldn't follow their movements, never mind decipher their meaning. It might have been over ten years, but Alan still knew Kevin's erratic and spontaneous coding.
Flynn payed plenty of attention to the big picture, his creations were versatile and flashy, but he didn't code very carefully. He was prone to making errors, some small and some catastrophic, that he wouldn't correct until long after he launched programs. Alan called it being lazy, Flynn called it art.
Alan had caught him making ridiculous mistakes, he once gave a program a contradicting function, it was essentially a paradox. He had to explain to Flynn that machines didn't like paradoxes and impossible directives, like the man was a child. Well, the lecture hadn't happened yet, but it was coming. As soon as Alan found his friend.
His meticulous eye repaired Flynn's original errors after he handled the damage. She would run much better than she had even before the injuries. Zed didn't have long to wait, soon Alan was closing out of the display.
The disk clicked back in place.
Mara's eyes, open wide and staring at nothing, flashed once with a white light.
Just as Zed began to think, so that's it, it didn't work. His mouth dropped open, Mara's shell began to reshape itself. Pixels materialized along the jagged, broken edge where her arm had been torn away until an arm lay against her side.
Mara's face was restored to its previous, flawless beauty. She was perfect.
"Mara should reboot in a few min- a few micros, she'll be fine." Alan assured him.
"Thank you." Zed said, breathless. "Thank you. How did you-"
"What happened?" Alan asked with genuine concern. If it was suspicious how quickly he changed the subject, Zed didn't say anything.
"Crazy glitch attacked a guard." He looked away, eyes distant as if he was seeing a different place and time. "She seemed to think that Tron guy was worth getting herself killed for."
"I was on my way here when I saw a wanted poster, lighting up the side of one of the largest buildings in the city. No one else gave it a second glance but… is Tron really in Argon?" Alan couldn't help the hope that made its way into his voice.
The program frowned. He shrugged.
"Either it's Tron, or someone pretending to be him. Last I heard the state had captured this renegade. Some high ranking program was gloating about it over the screens, the ones they set up all around the center of city after Tesler took over, they stream propaganda." Zed explained.
"After that announcement Mara attacked one of the guard. Did she think she could actually make a difference? Stupid. She's programmed to be a mechanic, she can't fight." The way he spoke made Alan wonder if Zed believed his own words.
"Do you know where the renegade's being held?" He asked.
"Everyone knows. There's a giant ship parked right in the middle of the city. No way you can miss that." Zed said, gesturing toward a window with his chin, as if the ship were right outside.
"There's certainly a lot of exiting things going on for such a small city, sitting at the very edge of civilization." Alan observed.
"You're telling me. In this place more crazy things happen than anywhere else on The Grid, I swear."
"I should be going now." Alan moved his hand to his knees, preparing to stand.
Zed looked at him with a mixture of horror and alarm.
"Right now? Aren't you tired? You only had energy, you have to recharge too-"
"I'll be fine. They're still looking for me, I have to keep moving. I have to find my program."