Chapter 14: -For Today
Tron's eyes slowly cranked open, his head spinning. The first clear thing he saw was the hull of a Light Jet, resting on the water. Looking down, the circuits covering his body had reverted back to white. Turning, he saw Anon with a coil of Light Cable, untying the end from Tron's waist.
"And here's the legendary hero himself," Anon chuckled, "Thought you were sunk, literally. Good thing your friendly neighborhood Anon came to save you."
"Okay, you win." Tron grinned, allowing the helmet to retract. "I owe you one. Gotta admit, it feels good to be back in white circuits. What's happening? I saw CLU heading towards the portal. Chasing after the Flynns."
"The Flynns are fine."Anon gazed into the thin light of the Portal before hiding the Light Cable in the emergency supply cabinet. "Rectifier's engines are crippled. I set explosives up inside the engines, so it should buy Quorra and the Flynn family some time to get to the portal."
"Tron! Anon!" Beck's voice rang out. The two looked up to see the Renegade's Light Jet landing in the digital water next to theirs.
"What's going on?" Beck worriedly stuttered, only to notice the two monitors staring with confusion at his Delta suit. "Oh, the new suit? Long story. I'll tell you later." Beck watched with fear as Rectifier loomed over them, guns pointed at the glowing portal. "I'm guessing we should.. head..over.." Beck stopped speaking as a large shock pulse rang through the electromagna rocks, instantly disintegrating the fragments of code.
"Get into the Sea!" Tron shouted, "Flynn's created a reintegration! If we get caught up, we go down with Rectifier!" All three programs dove into the Sea of Simulation just as the shock wave destroyed the Light Jets stationed in the water. Debris from the destroyed Jets sank to the bottom when Anon activated an emergency raft. The other two programs grabbed hold as the raft floated to the surface.
Beck, Tron, and Anon gasped for air, clinging to the raft as their only means of surviving. The shock wave suddenly retracted, a digital black hole left in the portal platform.
Beck watched in awe and spare Light Jet parts fell from the sky, a heavily damaged three-man Jet splashing into the water, remaining afloat for Beck to climb the boarding ramp. Several controls were damaged, coding torn in places where wires should be.
"Can you do anything?" Tron asked, entering the Light Jet, with Anon entering close behind. "Looks pretty banged up."
"Just be lucky that Delta's alter ego is a mechanic, and that this Light Jet isn't in pieces like everything else from the Rectifier." Beck's recoder worked magic, allowing Beck to repair the torn wires with little to no problems. In no time at all, the Light Jet was activated, allowing the boarding ramp to close and for the fully-repaired Jet to take into the sky.
"Oh, by the way," Delta handed Tron the disk, containing the memories of the System Monitor, now freed from it's corruption, "Here. I have a feeling you'll need it later. Tron smiled, placing the warm disk on his back.
"Head to portal," Tron motioned to Delta, who was in the pilot's seat, "I want to see if there are supplies or programs. Maybe even the Flynns." Delta nodded, turning the Light Jet around and revved the engine to max, pushing it towards the obstacle-free Portal.
Japter and Flad stood on the balcony of their apartment in glistening Jetrona, the other Light Guard sleeping sound. A loud buzzing noise alerted Japter, who activated the projector. A stream of code formed itself into a message, which Flad transferred to a datapad to read.
"It's an encrypted message," Japter said, eyeing the letter, "From Tron of all programs." Japter squinted behind his helmet, then shot up, alert and excited. "CLU's dead! They did it! I can't believe it!"
"Muuuugh..." Riot groaned, rising from his bed, "Something about CLU dying? That's good, right?"
"For us, yes! Well partially," Flad shrugged, "CLU has eight generals directly under his command. In due time, they'll turn into remnants. The eight Generals will make their own armies. Eight small armies against one mediocre army equals User hell for us."
"We have the programs," Sivet yawned, who had woken up quite suddenly, "We just need the artillery and ships. I remember a report from Mara. She said that a program called Delta sparked a revolution in Bismuth. Bismuth is the main ship builder in the grid, other than Boron City. Imagine if we had the entire Bismuth Shipyard at our disposal. We would be insurmountable with that kind of force!"
"Not to mention that we'd have the military forces of Bismuth and Argon as our backbone. We could end the war with one blow to Tron City!" Hax said, who had reactivated shortly before. "But I advise we take things slowly."
"Agreed." Pyro muttered, nodding his head. "We need to take back most of the cities before CLU's remnants find out. In the meantime, I'll report to Tron and Anon." The other Light Guard nodded before returning for much-needed sleep.
The Light Jet circled around the Portal, which was, surprisingly, still in one piece, like the three programs in the circling Light Jet. Delta looked out the portal, then tilted his helmet in confusion.
"I don't get it," Delta muttered, maintaining his course to the landing pad. "The portal's still standing, even though it's made of code too. It should have been destroyed in the reintegration pulse too."
"Flynn probably made the Portal indestructible for a reason." Anon, who was sitting in the back seat, and staring at the catwalk, spoke for the first time in a while, "After all, you can't access the Portal without that catwalk. Put us down." Delta complied, and landed the Jet next to a heavily damaged three-man Light Jet. The Jet had been involved in the dogfight with CLU, and the damage was the major pointer. The quad turret was ripped apart, and the engine was smoldered from CLU's laser bullets. Tron shrunk when he saw the damage he had inflicted in his Rinzler persona.
"Well, that brings back old times," Delta said, watching Tron stare at the damaged Jet. Tron turned around, brought out of his mesmerizing trance, and walked the thin stairs with the other two Monitors, even if Delta was self-appointed.
"Looks like CLU and the Users had a real party here." Delta looked at pieces of wire, torn like the engine of Flynn's three-man Jet. Pieces of metal were scattered across the floor, most of them in front of them. Delta kicked a few pieces of metal and knocked them into the chasm below. He gulped, hearing the clang of metal underneath the Portal, and stepped back, to find a switch. Tron nodded, and Anon flipped it.
"At least the tech still works." Anon snarked, watching as a bridge to the Portal platform extended and met halfway.
"Exuberance, please," Delta said, "It was just a magic trick. And give a round of applause to my lovely assistant, Anon." Tron began cracking up as Anon slapped Delta upside the head. The joyous occasion was busted by a large explosion from the Portal Lock-on Center. Pieces of debris flew into the Portal chasm, and digital smoke blew into the helmeted faces of the Monitors.
"What in the Users was that?!" Anon shouted, only to see the smoke clearing. All three programs drew their disks, Beck also drawing his sword. The first thing they saw from the dissipating smoke was a leather boot. Then a hand. Eventually the whole body of a program came into focus.
"I think your phrase was a bit too literal, Anon," Tron said, not moving an inch. A leather jacket and jeans were the main clothing of the figure. A single white cicuit ran down the zipper of the jacket. Brown hair, complete with blond streaks, filled the idenity of the program, replacing the streaks of gray, silver and white. The wrinkles on his face had completely vanished, with only a few stubs of facial hair. It was basically a resurrection and age reversal thrown into one package.
"Hey hey. How are you guys doing?" Kevin Flynn grinned.
The User World: Los Angeles, California, ENCOM Tower, January 5th, 2011, 10:04pm
"Mr. Flynn?" The secretary said, eyeing Sam Flynn curiously, "Mr. Flynn." Sam snapped out of his spasm, away from the picture of him and his father, when Sam was only seven years old. It had been a week since Sam had returned from the Grid, and seized control of ENCOM from corrupt CEO Richard Mackey.
"Sorry, Melissa," Sam said, straightening his tie, "What's going on?"
"Sir, I was told to remind you that the board has a meeting in a week, and has requested your attendance. For the meeting to discuss FlynnOS13." Melissa looked at her clipboard, then nodded. Her blond hair bounced as she broke a pencil in sheer distaste of the next memo. "Oh, and you have a meeting with F-Con Executives in eight days."
"Thanks, Melissa." Sam rose from his desk, grabbing the keys to his motorcycle, his helmet, motorcycle suit, and messenger bag, "It's getting dark. You might want to remind everybody that they get out of work now."
"Yes, sir." Sam nodded at Melissa as he went and changed into his cycle suit, stuffed his blazer, pants and tie in his bag, along with other important ENCOM documents, and went to the garage where he kept his Ducati.
Shoving the keys into the ignition, Sam left the ENCOM premises, to head to his new apartment. After that, he needed to head to the arcade.
He had work to do. And not just here.
A/N: Told you Tron wasn't dead. Plot twist all the way. Good old reunion between three familiar programs and an investigation of the portal. Turns out Flynn is alive (always thought Jeff Bridges' character was too awesome to die:). Have plans for the Garage programs and Paige, but I need votes on who to bring back. Review your vote, and favorites and followers are greatly appreciated. Have fun, and eat healthy.
Time's up, by the way. The poll on my bio is a tie, so I'm making the final call of how to make Aftermath and Redemption. We're merging. End of Line. :)