The edge of the Grid was less than fifty yards away. Jayce glanced over his shoulder, scanning the horizon for Recognizers, Light Jets, Light Cycles and Clu's flagship, the Regulator. Nothing. Jayce hurried his small group of six along, urging them to run. Once they made it off the Grid, they would be safe. Safe from Clu and his vendetta against a peaceful race, safe from the virus he had unleashed on the Grid. A virus he had blamed the object of his hatred on creating. Jayce and his people were ISOs. They had done nothing to Clu! Yet he was waging war against peaceful people because he believed them to be imperfect. Blights on the System. A flaw to be corrected.
Jayce sneered bitterly, quickening his pace to a full-on sprint as the edge of the Grid grew nearer. The people he sought to protect followed his lead and ran faster. Then, they were there—the edge of the Grid. Jayce didn't slow. When he was only feet away, he took a running leap and sailed five feet, landing two feet into the Outlands. The hard, crusty rocks beneath his boots crunched as he doubled back, helping his six charges off the Grid and onto the Outlands. They were home free! Quietly, they rejoiced amongst themselves, clasping hands, slapping backs, laughing. But the cheering was short-lived; they had to keep moving.
They had not taken even two steps when Jayce heard it: the unmistakable roar of Light Cycle engines. He turned sharply and looked back to the Grid. Headlights speckled the near horizon and they were closing fast. Recognizers followed in the sky, spotlights sweeping. Jayce's stomach did a sickening flip. Spinning, he threw his arms up and started pushing the ISOs ahead of him.
"Go, run!" he ordered. They clustered together, glancing at each other and whispering in frightened tones. "Run!" he yelled.
Finally, they ran. Jayce followed them, pulling his Identity Disc off his back and activating the cutting edge of light. The roar of the Light Cycle engines was so loud now it was like the helmeted MP3 programs at the End of Line Club had cranked up the volume without warning. The sound spurred the ISOs into a panic and they started to scatter. Jayce tried to rally them back together, but it was no use. The growling roar of the engines behind them suddenly cut out and there was a moment of deafening silence before the screams pierced the air.
Something hard collided with his back and Jayce went sprawling face down onto the crusty, grey-black ground. A knee was pressed into his back and a foot slammed down on his hand as he tried to lift his disc, then a hand yanked back his hood, grabbed a fistful of his hair and wrenched his head up. Jayce's eyes opened to the carnage of a massacre. Black Guards outnumbered the six scattered ISOs two to one and they were mercilessly chasing them down and slaughtering them like Gridbugs. One woman was running in his direction, her blue-white eyes locked on Rinzler. Her disc was in her hand, the edge humming with light. The vibrations of the lithe warrior's growl reverberated in his chest through the point of the knee on his back, and not a second later, the ISO woman's chest erupted in a shower of energy and shattering lines of code as a disc cut through her. She screamed, collapsing in two pieces mere feet from Jayce. He stared into her eyes and reached out to clutch her hand as the rest of her body crumbled into ever-smaller blocks of broken code. It was all he could do not to scream or vomit when her hand crumbled in his.
The cool, hard smoothness of a black helmet was pressed to his cheek and Jayce tried to jerk his head away, but the owner of the body keeping him pinned only purred into his ear, tightening the grip of the fist in his hair. The electronically distorted sound sent chills racing down his spine and Jayce couldn't stop the shiver that followed them. Another purr made him angry and he spread his legs, planted his toes and swung his free hand up, tilting his head to the side as his fist connected with the mask of the helmet. The crack of his knuckles on the hard material was as loud as it was painful, but it had the desired effect. Rinzler reared back and let go of his hair and Jayce used the opportunity to push himself up onto his hands and knees with enough force to dislodge the helmeted sociopath.
Jayce kicked himself up into a handstand, swinging his right arm toward his body as he spun one hundred and eighty degrees on his left palm before he swung his legs down and rose to his feet. The action had dropped his hood back onto his head and he peered at the lithe black form of Rinzler before him, silhouetted by the glow of the city behind him and marked by the red-orange glow of the minimalistic circuitry on his helmet, chest, abdomen, upper arms, hands, lower legs and feet. The circuitry on Jayce's own suit glowed pure white.
Rinzler took his Identity Disc from his back and split it into a set of twins, letting out a low growl as the edges lit with the brilliant white cutting edge. Jayce bared his teeth, subtly backing away as he spread his feet shoulder width apart and fell into a combat stance. This definitely wasn't going to be like every other game of Disc Wars... Rinzler effortlessly slipped into a stance of his own, his movement only given away by the shifting of his silhouette and the glowing circuits on his suit—he moved in complete silence. Jayce tried not to let his fear show as he drew his disc back to his shoulder, extending his left arm out, his hand held open and palm-down.
The red lights on Rinzler's helmet shifted as he tilted his head to one side, and that was the only warning Jayce received before the lithe predator launched one of his twin discs and lunged after it. Jayce clenched his teeth and deflected the disc, just in time to end up on the receiving end of a sharp roundhouse kick. His head snapped around and he spun with the force of the blow, staggering before dropping to his hands and knees. Behind him, he heard a quiet, rasping hiss, somewhere between a purr and a chuckle. Jayce tightened his fist around his disc and gritted his teeth, then got to his feet and spun to face Rinzler, circling slowly. He kept his movements in a side-step shuffle to avoid crossing his ankles and rendering himself unable to pivot away from a strike.
"This is just a game to you, isn't it?" Jayce growled, his voice tight.
Rinzler responded with a growl of his own that was so low Jayce felt it more than heard it. There was a sudden blur of red streaking the darkness and Jayce almost froze, but survival instinct carried him into a hands-free cartwheel, his arms held against his sides as he sailed in a tight arc over Rinzler's back, passing so close that his lips and chin brushed over the single line of glowing red light at the center of the curving line of his spine. As his left foot came down, closely followed by its brother, Rinzler's body twisted and spun and Jayce's vision was filled with the dazzling white glow of the cutting edge of an Identity Disc. He couldn't stop the cry of alarm that wrenched free of his throat as he threw himself into a back handspring to avoid the disc, barely managing to escape with just a cut on his chin.
Rinzler was on him the second his feet touched the ground again. Jagged rocks dug into Jayce's back as Rinzler's weight slammed him into the ground, then a fist connected with his jaw, followed by another and another. He yelled, swinging his disc down in an attempt to block Rinzler's fists with it, but the matte black warrior was quicker. He knocked the disc out of Jayce's hand and fastened his hand around his throat. Jayce's eyes went wide and he clutched at Rinzler's arm and hand, trying to pry the digits open, then flung one hand out and desperately clawed at the sleek back helmet. Rinzler merely batted his hand away and drew his arm back, leveling one of his discs with his shoulder. Jayce was acutely aware of the band of cutting white light thrumming only feet from his head, could see the air distortion around the edge of the disc. He clenched his jaw and bared his teeth, clawing at Rinzler's arm. He knew the predator had a face under that helmet, had eyes that were watching him. He clawed at the helmet again, hissing air through his teeth.
"Look—look me in the eyes when you derezz me..." he choked. "Look...me in the eyes...like a real program..!"
Rinzler paused, stilling. Suddenly, that sleek black helmet split apart and retracted. Jayce gasped, clutching at the lithe warrior's shoulder and bicep. He hadn't expected him to actually remove his helmet and look him in the eye. Jayce's stomach tightened and he tried to swallow, the saliva pooling at the back of his mouth choking him with every strangled inhalation. On top of the shock of seeing the face that Rinzler kept hidden, that face was stunningly beautiful. Silky chestnut hair that brushed the arches of defined, sculpted cheek bones, a strong jaw, defined nose and delicate lips...all offset by empty steel blue eyes. That beautiful face was contorted with a sneer and those eyes, despite their eerie emptiness, had a gaze so intense Jayce felt them boring straight through his skull. He couldn't look away.
He gasped again, his mouth staying open as he grasped at Rinzler's arm, shoulder, chest, neck. His fingers brushed over his cheek, lips and chin and suddenly those eyes weren't empty anymore. They filled with a cold, intense fire that Jayce could feel, flowing into him through that penetrating stare. He felt himself grow cold and clutched more desperately at Rinzler's hand, trying again to pry his fingers open. He wanted more than anything to live, but at the same time he was angry beyond measure. He reached up again, pawing at Rinzler's neck.
"Do it..!" he choked.
Rinzler's arm drew back again, moving his humming Identity Disc into killing position. Jayce braced himself, keeping his eyes locked on those of his killer. Rinzler's lips parted and his chest heaved as he let out a hard, shuddering breath, his arm sagging somewhat, then he bore his teeth and drew his arm back again with an audible sound somewhere between a growl and a groan, his eyes narrowing and eyebrows pinching together.
Jayce couldn't stop the almost maniacal grin. "You coward! You can't do it, can you?" he laughed, half choking.
Rinzler raised his disc above his head, but before he could swing it down for the killing blow, sharp gusts of wind began buffeting them from above. Rinzler's head snapped back, his gaze turning skyward. Jayce looked up as well, his vision starting to get a little fuzzy around the edges. A Recognizer was on its way toward them. Jayce blinked. They weren't on the Grid—the Recognizer would malfunction the moment it left the Grid's boundaries. Rinzler seemed to realize this at the same instant, for he stood up and jumped over Jayce, waving frantically for the pilot to turn back.
Jayce seized the opportunity immediately. He rolled over, snatched his Identity Disc up off the ground and slapped it into its cradle on his back as he made a run for it. Dizziness threatened to overtake him, spots of black and white dancing in his visual field, but he kept running. He tried to run faster when the Recognizer came crashing down behind him. He wondered what happened to Rinzler, but decided he didn't care. He kept running and didn't look back.