[Greetings! Thanks for choosing to read (and hopefully review!) my very first Tron fic; please leave any input you may have for me, suggestions, critique, etc! :) Please note that there is not any mature content in this chapter, but it is rated as such because there shall be in the upcoming chapters! Thank you!]
Chapter 1
It would seem logical to be under the assumption that there is only one way to access the Grid. To walk through the doors of Kevin Flynn's Arcade, past the rows of pinball and arcade machines, down the stairs hidden behind the Tron arcade machine, into Flynn's secret office, and entering into the system with a few keystrokes and with the assumption that you have a clear aperture can be the only conceivable way to enter the Grid.
False.
The Grid was created and discovered to be a digital frontier. Clusters of information moved through the computer, expanding outwards and beyond past the mainframe, wires, and circuits of Kevin Flynn. It truly was a new and fantastic world. For Kevin Flynn, at least. It is true that he is the creator of all programs that reside within the spacious zone on "the Grid", but the real question is how far does the Grid go? Where does it end? Is it an expansive vacuum like space, with no walls? The Grid has its limits, and programs and units malfunction when they are off-grid. But why? Is it because Kevin Flynn only claimed a small portion of the entire "computer space" that he supposedly "discovered", or had this copious amount of space already existed, and he merely expanded upon what was already there?
It's undeniable that Kevin Flynn contributed a great deal to the great empty void, and that without his obvious imprint upon the space and his talents of expanding the grid outward, it would have been left undiscovered. Or would it?
There are only a few certainties about the Grid: CLU, his dictatorship, Kevin Flynn's inability to escape, and the tendrils of information and navigational streams pushing against weakening firewalls beyond the Grid, beyond Kevin Flynn's knowledge. Beyond CLU's knowledge…
April was one of the youngest Graduate students studying Technology and Society. She had graduated early from High School, and after jumping through a few hoops of political nonsense, made her way into college with a full-time class load, and even taking summer-term classes. To those she knew and who came into contact with her would definitely agree upon the fact that she was a hard worker. She was also a solitary worker and kept to herself. She did not feel accepted by her peers, or her teachers, or her friends based on the voluntary differences she chose along her path to a career and life. She felt the most comfortable behind a computer, and when talking to those individuals she acquired online that were like her, and also sometimes considered "introverted", yet that term seemed exceptionally untrue when she communicated to her fellow internet socialites. Their attitudes and feelings were so readable to her, although mostly communicated via text, and it could be said that it was easier for her to perceive emotions through text vs. the physical shift of an individual's face.
She was clumsy, socially awkward at times, was uneasy when trying to comfort an individual, and did not display her emotions easily. She was incredibly "mousy", a term that she acquired prior to her year of high school graduation. The term derived from her brownish hair that always managed to have a tendril or two out of order, and her small physique that seemed even smaller due to her unconscious way of hunching her shoulders downwards over her belongings when making her way from one location to the another, and her blue eyes that were always moving and analyzing her surroundings. She was nimble on her feet, would consider herself a night owl, and always had her computer.
Although she hated change, she adapted well to it. Her whole entire life was a constant wheel of changes. She felt like she dealt with stress far better than those around her due to, in her opinion, her inner discipline. Her "inner discipline" could not prepare her for the accounts that would inevitably lead to her assumed death and disappearance.
The accounts that lead up to her "death" were hard to describe by the witnesses. April had been stuck inside due to a severe thunderstorm warning, and made her way to the research lab, when a fellow graduate student named Glen, and the closest "real life" friend she had, came up to her to inform her of his discovery. He insisted on her input on the matter, and her help in watching his station so he could locate a higher-up. He was making claims of blackholes, voids, and virtual space that was tangible. April's first impulse was to locate the means of his sudden insanity, even though it did seem unlikely for him to have been under any type of influence. He lead her to the research studio in a rush, making their way to a small desk located near a window that was slightly rattling from the thunderous waves outside.
"Look here…look at that! Isn't that amazing? Stay here while I go grab Professor Skillman. April, I'm counting on you to make sure no one comes and interferes with this code….I'll be right back!"
April's skills in coding and computer technology did not come anywhere close to that of Glen's, so she had to sit down and narrow her eyes a bit to read the encryptions and codings to gather enough information to figure what he was going on about. All she could make out were a series of incredibly unnatural lines of communication that seemed be coming from no where; her gut told her that the computer was simply infected with a virus or a practical joke.
The next few seconds are hard for her to recall, but she did remember a distinct crash, a boom, the sound of glass breaking, and a flashing of light, and the distinct feel of electrical charges coursing through her body as if a piece of lightning came way too close for comfort.
She wasn't aware of the existence of the "Grid", but she knew she wasn't back in the research studio. The darkness, the chronic lightning, and the horizon of nothingness were her first signs that she was either in a dream, dead, or somewhere else entirely.
Her clothing was slightly charred, and she could still feel the hairs on the back of her neck sticking up from the electricity that coursed through her body moments before. As she was smoothing her hair and massaging the muscles at the back of her neck, she did take notice of a shining beam to her right that was star-like; she then took notice of a very distinct outline of a city, and made a quick estimate that it was roughly 10 miles away. Making a quick glance around her, and in the other directions to see if there were similar signs of civilization, she made the decision to head off in the direction of the only signs of "life".