Irene

I parked my dad's old Ducati bike on the side on the road. Mac said he wanted to meet me for lunch and 'talk' which made me nervous. He had never really sat down to talk with me about anything ever since dad died, we discussed how things should run for the time being with Encom, but we hadn't sat to talk about the 'long-run' decision. I remember him from before dad died, he would play games with Clare and me, be our baby-sitter, dad's best friend, and there for my graduation…he was always around. If I also lost Mac I don't know who would be around to help with the company. I walked into the old diner that had a fading 80's theme. I smiled slightly at Mac as I walked to the back table he was sitting at. He had this strange expression on his face as he weirdly smiled back.

"How goes it?" I asked sliding into the booth in front of him.

"Good," he said. He lost his weird expression. "So, I think you know why I wanted to speak with you…"

"Of course," I said and rolled my eyes.

"Let's be serious about this, Irene. You are an adult, you have your own apartment, you have a way of transportation, and all you are missing now is a career. With Encom you can be your own boss. Nobody has to tell you what to do except the government. It will be good for you to take up what your grandfather had founded all those years ago," Mac said clearly as if he was talking to a child.

"I'm not meant for that world," I muttered. "I…no…I'm leaving it all to Clare. I told you I wanted nothing to do with it. I have no…idea how to even run a business. I like creating, Mac. If there is any job I want at Encom that would be designing games, building virtual worlds, making new consoles, man. Not pushing paper, coming in once a year, or managing money." I looked at Mac with longing in my eyes. "I'm not meant for that world."

Mac stared at me for a while as if thinking about something very important. "Then what world are you meant for?"

I stared at him blankly. "I don't know."

Mac swallowed hard. "Did Sam ever tell you about what happened to your grandfather, Kevin? Or how he met your mother, Quorra?"

"He told me once about this different world with streams of light, disks, light cycles…I don't remember when or even in what context…but I remember dreaming at night that was where I wanted to be. I wanted to see it so bad." I grinned. "I think he called it…The Grid?"

"The Grid," Mac said nodding in acknowledgment as if remembering it like some sweet thing. "Your father told me all about it…he told me he wanted Clare and you to rebuild it one day…you to be the new Creator…I've never been," he smiled timidly. "But from what your parents told me that place was something 'different'…the 'different' I think you are looking for."

"It's real," I said amazed.

"It was real, till Kevin Flynn erased everything in order to save Sam and Quorra." Mac chuckled. "I never met Kevin, but from what I heard he was some man."

"That is how Kevin died," I said.

"Yes, he was trapped inside The Grid for twenty years till Sam found out. Sam went into The Grid and had a vast adventure trying to get Kevin back to the real world, but…in order for Sam to successfully leave The Grid Kevin had to get rid of Clu, a clone Kevin made of himself who had been corrupted and had a plan to get into the real world. The only way to get rid of Clu was by taking him back into himself…but when he did the vast amount of energy he used to take him back killed Kevin and created a sonic blast that destroyed all of the buildings built on The Grid."

"So, this place…The Grid, you called it. It's real and all I need to do is what…rebuild it," I said still amazed at the idea that all this while there was a place for me to do everything I wanted.

"Yes," Mac said. "I think this is exactly what you need. Sam never rebuilt The Grid himself because he felt that…if he did then he would possibly be overwhelmed with great sadness of missing his dad…Kevin the one who discovered the world and created it to what it was. He also wanted to leave you something Irene. I don't know how he knew, but it seemed like he knew…this was exactly what you needed in your life. This," he pulled out a flat disk attached to a neck chain to wear around your neck. "The Grid…I've held onto it for your father. He asked to give it to you and your sister when you were ready. Clare might not be ready, but I think you are."

He slowly put the disk into my hands. I looked at it with awe as the little blue light blinked at the end of it.

"And maybe," Mac grinned. "This could be a project for you? If you can recreate or better build The New Grid for programs and usars we, Encom, can put it up as a playing ground for all the public. This would put Encom on top of all of the entertainment companies. Any company. This could change everything, science, medicine, religion."

I gripped my hand around the disk. "If I do this and open up The Grid for the public it will and it must be free. I know Kevin Flynn wanted that. I know my father wanted that. I know I want that and Clare will as well."

Mac sighed. "Irene-"

"No," I said. "This will be as I planned it to be."

Mac looked weary at first, but took a breath. "Fine," he smirked. "It is your families' world anyways. If you want it to be free it will."

"Good," I said. "How do I get into The Grid?"

"Underneath the old Flynn arcade is Kevin's old office. There you will find a server. Put the disk into the server and The Grid will open up. You can use the server to program anything you need into The Grid…well that's what your father told me…you might also be able to find some old papers or old programs that might work and put them into The Grid."

"Great," I said and grabbed the keys to the arcade from his hands.

"Great," Mac said smiling. "I'll keep in touch." He stood up and walked away.

Chapter 3 – Irene

The arcade had been abandoned since dad died, two years ago. The building was located in a remote section of the city, at the corner of the combining of four streets. The surrounding buildings were long abandoned and had graffiti all over the walls. The sign on top of the brick archway was off, but at night when you turned it on it would read FLYNN'S in big red bold lettering. I parked my bike right beside a street light that was covered with posters all along the base. The sidewalk was covered with old newspaper, old food wrappings, and decaying leafs from the trees at the end of the first street. It was in the middle of the day, but nobody was driving down these streets and nobody was walking around.

I found opening the front gate to the arcade kinda difficult with the rust building up on the metal. I gave the gate one last push and it swung open. "Damn," I huffed. "I'll need to have that fixed." I went up the front doors and easily unlocked the wooden doors. As the doors swung open, a great breeze blew into the arcade giving me chills going down my neck. The arcade was completely dark; I stepped to the right side of the doorway and found the breaker box. The box was all dusty and was difficult to flip the power on.

The lights above flicked on slowly, the long row of games suddenly burst to life making chirping sounds, and the sound system was busting loudly an old 80's song 'Tainted Love' by Soft Cell. I looked around at the now lit arcade and remembered all the good times spent here with my family. The floor was covered in dirt and the plastic coverings on the games were tainted with the dust. I looked up at the upper office above the arcade. The blinds were all the way down, but there was a light on in the room. I passed all the games and went to the wall on the far left side that went up to the office.

I opened the glass door and walked in. nobody was inside, denying my hope that maybe dad was just working here and playing his favorite games. The only thing in the room was an old white couch, a fading black floor lamp, and a dusty old empty desk. I closed the door and went back down to the floor level. I looked at the back wall and say the blue dusty sign beaming 'TRON.' I walked past all the other games and went straight to the old video game. On the dusty screen there was a demo of light cycles going up and down the outdated graphic screen. I look at the back of the game against the wall and see a small opening. I push on the side of the game and there was a dark passage leading down underneath the arcade.

I pulled out my pocket light and turned it on. The passage had cobwebs and dust floating around. I stepped down into the dark passage and made my way down. I stepped off the stairs and went down the narrow hall. At the end of the hall were great big metal doors, I pushed then open and saw the old office of my grandfather. I walked in and closed the metal doors behind me. I couldn't find any power switch so with my flashlight I looked around at all the dusty photos, papers, couch, machines, it all looked like it had not been touched in forty years.

On the right side of the room against the brick wall was a huge machine. I wiped the dust off the top, it was like a desk, and under the dust I saw a blank screen. I sat down in the chair in front of the system and tapped the screen. Nothing happened while I kept touching the screen and whipping off more of the dust with my hand. I looked on the side of the system and saw an open slit, like an usb port to load data into the system. I looked down at my chest where I put the disk with the chain around my neck.

I slipped if off my neck and looked at the disk. "This better work," I said, putting the open end into the port. The screen blinked to life and popped up a box. The pixels were a green and the empty areas were black. At the bottom of the box was a keyboard. I typed in something simple 'hello.' It popped to the beginning of the box and underneath that it read 'incorrect log-in.' "Hm, it possibly needs a command to download The Grid. Let's see," I said looking around the room. In front of me was a billboard was a sitemap labeled The Grid. I typed in 'the grid.' It was incorrect. I kept typing things I thought would make it work.

"Dang it," I muttered. The last thing I tried was typing in 'kevinflynn.' "Maybe this," I mumbled, typing in 'backdoor.' There was a new result all under it was a bunch of numbers with certain commands listed under it. I read through the options and decided that this was the key in I needed. I chuckled to myself, "so simple," and typed in 'download.'

There was a beep and light flashed behind me. The screen asked me whether to confirm action or not. I typed in the confirmation and then there was blackness. A feeling came over me as if something had made a hook on my naval and was pulling me forward into a tight hole.

I landed flat on my feet on cold solid sleek black flooring. I took a deep breath and looked up eyelevel. There was nothing. As far as my eye could see there was just the black flooring with squares going straight in an orderly formation. I turned around in a circle and saw the same thing all around me, but vast nothing with the flat flooring. I looked up at what was meant to be the sky and saw giant thunderclouds covering all the sky. Thunder clapped and a strike of lightening went through the clouds. I looked right above me and saw a shinning blue light, how I would imagine the northern star to appear as.

I crouched down and touched the ground, it was cold and had no heat emitting from it. I placed my palms down and all of a sudden as if a wave hit my face I saw the whole history this place; the beginning, the raising, the fall, and then the end. "I got in," I said with a grin growing on my face.

"I am meant to create this place into a new Grid," I said realizing with a new fresh outlook on where I was standing. I ran my hands along the smooth surface of the ground I stood on. I closed my eyes and looking with my mind through The Grid. It showed me how to get back into my world; with the disk on my back, I place it up to the light, and it will take me back.

I stood up, reaching to touch my back, and found what I was looking for. I pulled it forward and looked in my hands at the round disk with light beaming all around the edge and a line going in the middle. I held it flat in my hands and a hologram projected from the disk. It was me, astonished I touched the hologram, and it changed into replaying my whole past in a fast forward motion. "Wow," I said grinning. I looked around me one last time before putting my disk up towards the light. While I was going back I felt as if I was going up in a rocket and landed suddenly in the chair in front of the system.