They screamed. It was not a scream that sounded natural, but a scream that sounded recorded. Across a series of stands, neon figures yelled, raising and lowering their pitch in even measurements. They stood in a stadium, surrounded on three sides by a city. That last side bordered the out-lands, a series of rocky cliffs that only the most daring, and stupid, programs went into. In the arena, warriors were throwing this disks at each-other. When a disk hit, the target was immediately thrown into pixels. As this happened, the crowd mechanically cheered.
Out on the streets, this cheering could only be faintly heard. The black buildings hugged the streets, and the slums faintly echoed with the announcer calling the results. The neon lights were not as bright here, as the residents did not want to be known, and didn't want to know what was coming. Around in these parts of the grid, there was a forbidden word. When spoken, this word would cause immediate deresolution to anyone. It was faintly whispered among them in pubs, and an older program spoke this word only in time of great need.
On that occasion, however, the word echoed throughout the slums. CLU, CLU, CLU. The programs turned their heads at the mention of this word, and glanced towards the skyscrapers around them. At that moment, the stadium kicked into such a roar, that not one program noticed a cloak sprint through the slums. The neon light radiated off the being inside, and a deep panting could be heard.
As the figure left the slums, if folded the coat and entered the middle of a light street. Above, orange ships moved. They had a central pod connected to two legs. As the figure reached behind its back to pick up an object, the cloak fell away to reveal its face. It was a human male, around six feet tall, and had a serious complexion. He had brown hair, and green eyes that shown with intensity. He reached found the object behind him, and pulled out a small disk. He gave a signal, and the disk came to life. A bright blue blade surrounded the disk, and he felt all of his memories, and opinions in it.
Without hesitating, he hurled his disk at the ship. The disk missed, but attracted the drivers attention. He turned the ship, and headed towards the man. As the ship neared the ground, the pod lowered on the legs, and soon, the man could walk onto the pod. Two orange uniformed guards came towards him, and grabbed him. On the pod, were a wide arrangement of programs. One was without a leg, and was bleeding pixels. Another stood, but wore an eye-patch. The guards looked at his back, and not seeing a disk, placed him on footholds.
The man relaxed, and watched as the ship lifted off the ground, and headed towards the stadium. They landed in a small area surrounded by more orange guards. They dragged him from the pod, and placed him on a steel circle. The circle rotated and spun down until the man stood in the center of a chamber. Where he had been expecting four steel containers holding programs designed to dress the program for the games, he found a series of guards. The programs designed to dress him appeared from behind these guards, but when they tried to give him a new disc, the attempted disk was rejected with a thud. The man smiled, leaned forwards, and started fiddling with his legs.
The guards stepped closer, but when they got close enough, the man threw himself back, and toppled the guard. Another guard charged at him, this one holding a staff. The man reached out, and grabbed the staff as it came towards him, he reached back, and flipped the second guard. Striking the staff at his feet, the man freed himself from invisible bonds he had noticed when the leaned forward. Stepping forwards, the man ducked under a disk as it was thrown from a third guard, the man meanwhile stabbed two more guards with the staff before the disk returned to the third guard. In this manner he combated the majority of the guards. Suddenly, one of the last few guards hit a button suspended on a string, and the doors sealed from every direction.
The man dropped the staff and sprinted towards the door. The air rustling past him revealed a lean figure, with defined, but not grotesque muscles bulging from the arms and legs. The man threw himself under the door as it smashed behind him, barely scrapping his shoes, which now had small pixels visible near the toes.
The man heard a voice say, "Get up", and felt hard hands grab him. He looked up in time to see a fist come blowing towards him, and heard a confident, vile, voice say, "take him away."
The man woke to find himself sitting in a chair near a window. The window overlooked the stadium, where currently, racers were trying to destroy the other racers in beams of light. However, one racer stood out in this sport. A racer in yellow managed to score more kills than any other. In the end of the match, he had scored four out of his team's five kills. The man stared in awe as the racer stepped away, and raised his helmet. The face underneath undermined any respect the man had for the racer.
CLU, the man thought as he slipped back into unconsciousness. I've found you at last.
The man woke again to find CLU facing him, still in the yellow suit. CLU smiled when he saw the man awaken, and gestured to a man behind him. An orange suited guard approached CLU carrying a disc. The disk was blue, and seemed familiar to the man.
Clu smiled again as he took the disk and pressed a small button. A hologram of the man came up, along with other information.
"Ahh, after all this time, I finally catch the elusive Thomas Bewhart. Do you know how much trouble you have caused, yet you finally give yourself up, why is that? huh?" CLU asked, hoping that there was no acceptable reason.
Thomas, on the other hand, smiled. He had been waiting for that question for years. In his mind, he had pictured every way that this conversation could go, but with his moment at hand, he chose his favorite.
"A while back, you set about to create the perfect system. Around that same time, I set about to create freedom. I've worked hard, but do you see where this has gotten me, so I turned to crime, petty crime. Now is my chance for revenge, and I think that you are the one who I shall have it upon."
"And what makes you think that you will be able to do this, as I have not yet heard one word about this form of revenge?"
"Ahh, there is the beauty of it. I want nothing like that. I want one duel between us, and during that time, programs are free to roam the city, so they don't have to always be at the game. They will get the freedom of choice. Also, I don't believe that you get much of a choice in that matter, as the tournament is tomorrow night. In twenty hours."
Thomas stood up and left the room. CLU began to order his guards to follow him, but discovered that Thoams was already gone. Only then did CLU notice that Thomas had taken his disk with him.
CLU turned towards the stands, and waited for the next twenty hours to end.