Samantha "Sammy" Flynn was raised on stories of Tron by her father Kevin, who disappeared when she was ten. Her mother had never believed the tales, so she claimed he'd run off with a younger woman to the Bahamas and got a divorce without much trouble. Samantha lived with her grandparents for the most part after that and refused to have her mother in her life at all once she turned eighteen. She finished college at the top of her class at her father's old alma mater and as per the deal with her father's old friend Alan Bradley, she was given the key to her father's office at ENCOM. The board of directors didn't like her much, since she like her father insisted on giving the public their updates for free. What they didn't know is she was there to look for clues, only putting her foot down when they did something she knew her father wouldn't have approved of either, which turned out to be a lot.
To take her mind off work, she went to her father's old arcade and started cleaning it up in her spare time. She uncovered the game TRON, her father's most prized invention and discovered a hidden passage behind it to a secret office. "I knew you had another office, Dad." She muttered to herself, looking around. There were dusty cabinets and computer on a desk with a lamp, all of them covered in cobwebs. She cleaned them away and got the computer to work again, which she looked through for clues. She found hints that her father had figured a way into the digital frontier, just like he'd said. She saw what he'd done when she saw the coding and didn't realize she was opening a back door in, the same one her father always used.
The next thing she knew, she was being sucked into a vortex that pulled her in and she landed right in the middle of glowing streets and dashed out of view just in time before vehicles powered by light flew by. "The Grid." She whispered in awe as she looked around and saw buildings which varied in height from normal size to as tall as skyscrapers, if not higher towering above her. Now I just need to find my father, though something tells me I need to be discreet. He should have returned on his own years ago, so something must be wrong. She thought to herself and incopacitated the first program she came across that was by themselves. "It's nothing personal, I just need to blend in." She told the unconscious female while she took their clothes.
The first thing she did was get a job at a mechanic's shop and fit in just enough not to draw attention to herself. With the money she earned, she saved up and bought her own lightcycle and as she customized it in her free time, she slowly learned what happened: Clu had taken over the whole system, Tron was thought to be dead and her father hadn't been seen since Tron's downfall. Samantha knew from the stories about Tron he could still be alive, but there was no sign he might be while innocent programs were oppressed by Clu, so someone had to do something. She used some of her savings to make a specialized suit, which made her Tron's height and sound like a man as long as she wore the helmet that hid her face from view. She put all terrain tires on her lightcycle and programmed it to be white with no identifying markings after curfew.
She did the things Tron would have done and a few believers on the Grid were hopeful because of the return of their protector. Everyone else was skeptical and called her the Renegade, a menace to Clu's perfect order. Honestly, she liked the name Renegade because it meant she was different than her childhood hero/crush. One night, she had just freed some programs that had been on their way to the Games when she was attacked by a member of Clu's task force and fought fiercely against them, though there was something eerily familiar in the way they moved till it dawned on her just as their laser disk impacted with her face and knocked her unconscious.
She woke to find herself bound in electrical restraints that would have chopped off a program's hands if they'd tried to break free. Since she wasn't a program, it would hurt like hell and probably draw blood while electricuting her because it tightened every time escape was attempted, therefore not worth the risk. She looked around and noticed she was in a large room with no decorations and the windows were tinted so no one could see in or out. By the lack of sounds outside, she ascertained she wasn't on the Grid any more just before the helmeted man walked inside.
"You are in violation of several codes, program."
"I think you and I both know I'm not a program... Tron."
He stopped in front of her as if surprised, then the helmet disappeared to reveal his familiar face. It was distorted by a long blue gash that went down passed his neck. "So it is you, Sammy."
She nodded slowly. "What happened to you? Why haven't you healed?"
"Clu." He replied darkly, releasing her restraints. "Whatever he did to his disk, even my adaptable programming can't counter. I managed to get away once your father had fled at my insistence, but the damage was already done. Now I hover between life and death, slowly deteriorating despite making a containment tank that staves off the worst of the corruption."
"There's got to be a way to fix the problem." She looked him over and mused at how much he really did look like a much younger Alan. "Can I see your disk?"
He handed it over and watched her pull up his information. "It's been so long I almost forgot what Users are capable of."
"No sign of my father?"
"Not since Clu took over. He was forced into hiding after he thought I was dead."
She sighed softly, handing him back his disk. "With this much damage to your coding, only a full purge could fix it. Unfortunately, the only place to get a purge like that is Clu's recoding facility... though you probably already knew that."
He nodded gravely and put his disk back in it's slot. "I'd never make it out of there without help. Even then the risk of me being recoded is dangerously high."
"It might be your only option besides dying, Tron. Your programming once purged should have it's full adaptability again, so even if Clu thinks he's made you a soldier of his you won't be. You impersonated a corrupted program before to get to the MPC."
"You really are your father's daughter." He said in amusement. "Let's see if you're right."
"If I'm not, I will find a way to fix you."
He smiled in a way that reminded her she was a woman that was very attracted to him. "A User willing to fight for me, now there's something I never thought I'd see."
She cleared her throat and managed to reply: "You fight for us, it's about time someone was in your corner." Don't let yourself get too attached, he's a program and there's no way he'd be interested in a User. She thought to herself as she followed him out into the unknown region beyond the Grid.
