AN: So I was going over Legacy with a fine tooth comb for the purpose of writing my main Tron fanfic, Ghost in the Machine, when I realised that Tron was on the Grid as soon as it was made. Clu wasn't made until things had started getting established. Flynn completely forgot that a system admin was necessary. So… what made him remember?
And well this just kind of happened. The idea made me giggle.
Enjoy!
Tron watched as both Flynn and the portal vanished, and gave a sigh of relief. He wasn't pleased when Flynn had told him the portal would only be open for so long, and he was considerably less pleased that Flynn was risking becoming trapped inside of the Grid. But well, when the User set his mind to something, there was little Tron could do to convince him otherwise. If Flynn said the portal was fine, the portal wasn't going to be altered.
Besides. Flynn would be gone for a long while. Tron might as well ensure he came back to find his fledgling Grid was still secure.
Time to get to work.
Tron had been given a small force of security programs to work under him, not many for now, but Flynn said more would be needed as the Grid developed. It was a strange feeling, giving orders, after spending his entire runtime as independent security, but well. Alan-1 had created him to be adaptive, so he was bound to settle into the role with time.
With Tron's shift over, he left the central security building, and began to head down the street of city, towards where his residential quarters were.
"Excuse me, Tron? I need help!" A program called, crossing the street to approach Tron, pace rapid and expression relieved.
"If it's urgent, it would be better to send an alert to the central security building."
"No, no, you don't understand. I don't need help from security, I need help from you. I'm an architect, and I've been doing double checks of the plans for the city's current structures. Residential tower 2-A has a potentially dangerous flaw in its design, and it would be best to address at once. I can arrange for a quick patch of the flaw, which will be less invasive to the residents, but require fortification every ten cycles, or I could have the problem accessed and fixed directly, which would be a permanent solution, but displace a great deal of programs. Which should I do?"
Tron stared.
"…Why are you asking me?"
"Well… normally we… we take these matters to the Creator, but with him away… you're the highest ranked program on the Grid. You're in charge. Of… everything…"
Tron was well aware that his expression was alarmed, as he quickly accessed the system logs, and was unpleasantly surprised to find that the architect was correct.
And Flynn wouldn't be back for several cycles. And there wasn't a single program with the knowledge, ability, or permissions to be given the task instead.
"Tron? What should we do?"
Spending a great deal of time with Kevin Flynn, Tron had ended up picking up some User swears. He didn't tend to use them often, but they did tend to convey points rather aggressively when he needed them to.
Which is why Tron's situation was something he internally summarized as this.
He was completely fucked.
When the portal lit up several cycles after Flynn's departure, Tron could have cried in relief.
But as the head system monitor, and temporary system admin, he was expected to be a leader. So instead, he closed out of the files he had been reviewing, exited the building, and rezzed up his lightcycle, heading to the entry point at a speed that only particularly observant programs would be able to define as desperate.
When he arrived, Flynn was already being greeted by programs, grinning and talking with them. At the sight of Tron, his smile grew, and he broke through the crowd to meet him.
When Tron's helmet retracted, Flynn's smile immediately dropped, shifting into an alarmed expression.
"Tron? What the hell happened man, you look terrible! Are you alright?"
Tron closed his eyes. He took a deep breath.
It did not help.
"No. I am not alright. Why am I the highest ranked program on the Grid?"
"…Because you're the head of security? I wouldn't trust the job with anybody but you man, you're-"
"No. That's not what I meant." Tron interrupted. Several cycles ago, he would never have interrupted a User, let alone confronted one with such disrespect, friend or not. But it had been a very long few cycles, his systems were nearing critical meltdown from the length of time without a shutdown, and between his system monitor duties and attempting to understand his system admin duties, Tron was pulling apart at the seams. He might have been coded to be adaptable, but nobody could be adaptable enough to handle the situation he had been thrown into.
Also, he was fairly certain his left eye had developed a twitch, and his internal clock hadn't been functioning for… however long it had been.
"What I meant, is there is no administrator for this system. So when you are not present, system admin status is granted by default to the highest ranked program. Do you know who that is?"
"…Is it you?"
"IT IS ME. I'm not coded for administration! I have no idea what I'm doing! I've done nothing but work this entire time, programs keep coming to me with problems I don't even understand, and I haven't been able to shut down since…. since… I don't even know! My internal clock suffered a critical failure a while ago from exhaustion! Fix this Flynn! Fix it now!"
During the rant, Flynn had raised his hands in front of him, in a gesture that was meant to be either soothing or placating. Either way, it wasn't working.
"Okay, okay! I'll make an admin program, top priority, it'll be the first thing on my list! In the meantime… how about you go and shut down, okay? You look like you're on the verge of crashing."
"Possibly because I am! Because I've been trying to do a function that I'm not remotely capable of doing for the last three cycles, and I couldn't stop or take a break because there was nobody that could possibly-"
"TRON. You're starting to scare me. Go get some rest."
"…Okay."
"Take all the time you need, I'm giving you a vacation. Man, by the sounds of it you just pulled the worlds longest overtime. Go and rest, you've more than earned it. I'll probably have the administration program rezzed up by the time you wake up. Now, details, details. Admin's probably hard work, I'll need the best program for it. Someone dogged and relentless- oh. There's an idea. Hmm, wonder if I could…"
Flynn wandered off, mumbling to himself in deep thought. Tron watched for a moment, before deciding to obey the error messages demanding he rest, and staggered his way home.
Collapsing into bed was the greatest thing he had ever felt.
Tron came out of sleep mode slowly, which was unusual in of itself. Like all security programs, he tended to exit rest periods with immediate alertness, ready for any potential threats.
Casual scans showed nothing dangerous in the vicinity, so Tron allowed himself the luxury of remaining sprawled out on the bed as he slowly rebooted.
His internal clock was fixed, and was firmly informing him that he had been in shutdown for two microcycles. Unusual, but expected, given the state he had been in when he shut down.
He also had a message from Flynn waiting for him, marked as non-urgent, requesting him to come find him whenever he was feeling better.
Tron stretched, and gave a deep groan of satisfaction as his back cracked, his head brushing against his heels in the process.
Flexibility was a useful trait in a security monitor. And frankly, Tron enjoyed it.
Now he was feeling better.
Tron climbed out of bed, and let his suit re-rezz. Rustling around through his drawers, he quickly found some energy rations that he had stored in his quarters, and consumed one, humming in satisfaction at being boosted from low power.
Time to find Flynn.
The User hadn't bothered to hide his steps, and it was a simple matter for Tron to trace his unique signature, finding him in the middle of the city, in a space that had been left empty for a future tower.
Looking out his window, Tron was unsurprised to find the city skyline changed, a large, elegant looking tower now standing in the formerly empty space.
Flynn had been busy.
Hopefully, he had made the new administrator already. Otherwise Tron would have to start yelling again, and it would be slightly harder to get away with now that exhaustion wasn't a factor. That wouldn't stop him, but it would make things awkward when he calmed down.
Tron pulled up to the new tower, and was unsurprised to find it designated as admin central. It was a definite improvement over the last one, which had defaulted to his office at security central.
Hm. There was probably a lot of data in there that the new admin would need moved to their office.
Eh. He'd find a data-pusher to do it for him.
Tron let himself into the tower, and took the lift up to the top floor, where the records said Flynn was. Reaching the top, he found a large, comfortable looking office, with Flynn sitting at the desk, sorting through datasheets and muttering to himself. He didn't look up at Tron's arrival.
"Flynn, for the record, my outburst earlier was entirely innapropriate, and I'm terribly sorry for yelling at you. But if you haven't made that system admin yet, I'm going to start yelling again, and I'm not sure when I'll stop."
Flynn looked up at him, eyes wide with surprise.
"Oh, you must be Tron."
He raised an unimpressed eyebrow.
"Yes, that would be my name. What's going on?"
A door to the side opened, and Flynn walked out.
Wait.
What?
"There you go buddy, bedroom should be all set up. Hey, Tron! Glad you're feeling better man, I was worried about you!"
Tron looked between the Flynn in the doorway, and the Flynn at the desk, relatively certain that he was having a severe processor malfunction. His scans said everything was functioning normally, which indicated the malfunction was affecting his scanner as well.
"Flynn? What's going on?" Tron asked, addressing the question to both Flynn's just to be safe. Doorway Flynn beamed.
"I made that admin you said we needed! Tron, meet Clu. He's the system administrator. I put my soul into making him man, and he turned out even better than I hoped! It'll be like I'm still here, even when I'm away. Tada! Clu, this is Tron. He's the head security monitor, you'll be working together a lot. How about you two get to know each other, I've got to run and meet Shaddox about something. Later!"
And with that, Flynn practically skipped to the elevator, clearly pleased with himself.
As the User left, the two programs exchanged glances.
"Is he always like that?" Clu asked, his expression of mild reservation seeming odd on Flynn's normally cheerful face.
"You get used to it." Tron offered in response. "Nice to meet you Clu. I'm looking forwards to working with you."
The new admin grinned
"Looking forwards to working with you too."
AN: 'HAHA NICE TO MEET YOU TRON SURE HOPE I DON'T END UP DESTROYING YOUR FACE AND BRAINWASHING YOU BECAUSE THAT WOULD BE A REAL SHAME ANYWAYS LOOKING FORWARDS TO WORKING TOGETHER'
Anyways. Don't really know where this came from, but yeah. Somebody had to run the Grid when Flynn wasn't there, and Clu hadn't been made. Who else but our poor, overworked security monitor. Also, if somebody draws an exhausted, pissed off Tron grabbing Flynn by the jacket and yelling 'FIX THIS FLYNN! FIX IT NOW!' I will love you forever. Just sayin'.