Author's Note: So, this story is marked as "complete" but for those of you reading this now, and who have read my other A/Ns, you'll know that that's not entirely true. This is the first of a few Crossover Bonus chapters that may or may not have actually happened to my OC and her guardian Clint. Don't know how many there'll be, but they're here. These are going to be a little longer than normal chapters - and when I say a little, I mean like, two or three times longer - because the story still needs to be told even if it's short and rushed and I don't want to have more chapters than I have to. So all Bonus chapters will be separate Crossover adventures. This one takes place almost directly after the events of the chapters before this one.
It was dark, dusty, and cold in the bowels underneath the old arcade. Violet-Sky and her cousin and guardian Clint Barton had been sent by SHIELD to investigate a mysterious ping on their radar. The man who had refurbished the old 1980s Flynn's arcade—the CEO of Encom enterprises by the name of Sam Flynn—had disappeared from the home he shared with his cousin Quorra Flynn a few days ago. Quorra said he'd been on his way to the arcade. Patrons said they'd seen him arrive. He'd played a few games of Tron and Space Paranoids—beating his old high score—and then just disappeared. No one had seen him go, and no one had seen him since.
It had taken Clint all of two minutes to discover the door behind the Tron game. Together, the two archers descended underground to take a peek at what was so important Sam Flynn had felt the need to hide it from the world—or at least his patrons. As the cousins went down a flight of stairs, they saw the "Electrical Sub-Room" that warned people to stay out.
So of course, they went right in. Hanging from the lock was a keychain with a small Frisbee-looking thing on it. The office had a thin layer of dust coating it, but looked like it had been covered with more sometime recently. There were pictures on the wall, an old Game Boy, and a schematic of something called The Grid. Opposite the computer-less desk was what looked like a ray gun from comic books. Violet-Sky approached the desk fearlessly and looked at it. It was a touch screen counting up. Like a stopwatch. She sat down at the desk chair and wiped some of the dust off. Clint was standing behind and off to the right of her. The screen activated.
"What do you say, Clint? Think we should hack in and see what Mr. Flynn was keeping secret?"
"It was a secret for a reason, Vi," Clint replied.
"Yeah, but it may give us some clues as to where he went," she retorted. "Besides, when have you been hesitant in acquiring potentially valuable information?"
Okay, she had a point. He shrugged. "Go ahead."
Violet-Sky Barton was young. She had bright purple eyes and long brown hair. Her skin was pale given it was nearly winter and her summer tan had faded. Her fingers flew over the touch screen keyboard as easily as if she was doodling a picture of a stick figure. Typing in commands she had learned outside of SHIELD on her own, she managed to open Sam Flynn's history. "What do you think 'laser control' is?" she asked, looking at the last item on the list of code.
"No idea. Click it."
She did as instructed. Aperture clear? It asked. There were two options. Yes, and No. Which was painfully obvious. She glanced back to Clint. He shrugged. She turned back to the screen and tapped Yes. And something whirred. There was a long pause while they waited for something to happen.
Then something in her stomach dropped, flopped, and wrenched.
It was over in a moment.
When she looked around, she saw she was in a much sleeker version of the office she had just been in. "Clint?" she asked.
"Yeah?" he replied from near the door. He'd moved fast.
"What just happened?"
"I'm not sure. But I suddenly find myself without my bow, and I don't like it."
They ran back up through the arcade. It didn't look like it was from the 80s anymore. Violet-Sky was feeling very concerned. Out on the street—that felt like plastic under her combat boots—they looked around. It was nighttime. And of the same futuristic, sleek quality as the office and the arcade. The street lines were glowing. The building that said Flynn's was taller and a bluish gray. The buildings had ribbons of light running up them. It was raining, but neither Barton could feel it. The lightning that struck outside the city was pixelated—like they'd gone into an old-fashioned video game. "What is this place?" Violet-Sky asked. Clint pointedly ignored the teeny quaver of fear in her voice.
"An excellent question," a new voice remarked with approaching footsteps. Violet-Sky and Clint whirled away to see a man grinning at them. Not much more than thirty. He had the bluest of blue eyes and dirty-blond hair. Strong jaw, good cheekbones, tall, tan, muscled. Wearing a suit of black with white light pulsing over lines up and down the whole body. It appeared to be all one outfit—Violet-Sky couldn't even see a seam. She recognized him—both from the SHIELD file and from the newspapers.
"Sam Flynn?"
The man smiled. "Yup. That's me. As for where you are, welcome to the Grid. And thank you for coming. I was starting to lose hope that I would ever get out of here. What's your name?"
"I'm Clint. This is my cousin and charge Violet-Sky," Clint told Sam, wrapping an arm protectively around her shoulders. She rolled her eyes exasperatedly. Clint was convinced every male she encountered was going to fall irrevocably in love with her. Which she knew was not true. "We work for an organization called SHIELD that was called in to investigate your disappearance."
"Well, I'm here. But I couldn't get back. I'm glad you came."
"What do you mean?" Violet-Sky inquired. "'Couldn't get back'?"
"I lost track of time. The portal back to the outside world closed on me before I realized it."
"Portal?" Clint asked. "We can't just go back down into that office and zap ourselves back into our world?"
"'Fraid not," Sam answered. "We're now in a computer. A digital cyberspace. My father built the first Grid, but after that was destroyed, I made a new one. It requires more work to get out than to get in. We'll have to get to the portal quickly. It only opens from the outside."
"O… 'kay," Violet-Sky muttered.
Sam shook his head with a grin. "But first," he started, "we gotta get you some new clothes." He looked over his shoulder. "Hey TRON! We got some Guest Users!"
Another man came out from behind the corner of a building. He looked remarkably like Sam's business advisor Alan Bradley—except younger. Brown hair, athletic, pale, muscular enough under his bluish-white lighted suit. He didn't look like much, but Violet-Sky would bet he could hold his own in a fight against Clint—and maybe even beat her. He looked lithe. "Welcome to the Grid!" he exclaimed, holding his hands out in greeting. His grin was kind and his voice bright. One of his eyes was blue and the other an orangey brown. If Violet-Sky squinted, she thought she could see the lines of a circuit board in his skin—unlike Sam. He came right up to her and gave her a hug. Over his shoulder, she could see a Frisbee with the middle cut out attached to his back.
"TRON here is our main security. He'll take you to the Guest User station and get you outfitted in one of these!" Sam tapped his chest, prodding the strange armor. Violet-Sky opened her mouth. "Don't worry, you'll be in those clothes again when you leave. You'll also need an identity disc. But that won't be a problem, we have some."
"He's gonna need to start speaking normal English soon or I'm going to smash something over his head," Violet-Sky muttered to Clint as Tron led them to a lighted vehicle. Her cousin grinned dryly.
"I don't like it," Violet-Sky decided as TRON pressed armor against her arms, back, and chest. It digitized together and began to light up. Unlike all the other lights she'd seen—which were all white, blue-white, or blue—her suit began to glow purple. Which didn't really surprise her. TRON grinned.
"Why not?"
"It's not exactly comfortable."
"You'll get used to it," he reassured her. "Let me grab your disc and we'll get you, Sam, and Clint to the portal."
"You're not coming through?" Clint asked from across the room where he was standing in the black jumpsuit that hadn't had the armor attached to it yet. TRON crossed to the far corner where a column with a middle-less Frisbee was waiting and shook his head.
"No. I'm a Program. I was created here. I belong here. I can go into the 'real' world. But this place is what's real to me," he explained, going back to Violet-Sky. He motioned for her to turn around. She did. There was a jolt as TRON shoved the disc onto the holder on her back. "There you go. If you'd be so kind as to wait while I assist Clint." Violet-Sky shrugged and sat down on a bench.
"How come I can see that it's raining but I can't feel it?"
"Digital storm. Random bits of disintegrated code falling through the atmosphere. It's not tangible like most everything else," TRON explained.
"Like when I look at you and see a circuit board in your skin?"
"Exactly. I'm just code. You're flesh and blood."
"I see. Not sure I understand, but I think I see."
Outside, after Clint was armored and got his disc, TRON turned to them. "It'd be faster to take the Light Cycles. You both know how to ride a motorcycle?" he asked. Clint nodded confidently, but Violet-Sky shook her head. "No matter. You'll learn quickly. These are much easier than motorcycles. At least, that's what Sam tells me."
He was right. Violet-Sky found it easier than she thought it would be. They met up with Sam at Flynn's arcade. He was already on a Light Cycle, grinning madly as Violet-Sky tried to get her balance as her bike slowed down. "Ready to go?" he asked.
"Yeah…" she edged.
"Now, remember, if you need to, your disc can function as a weapon. It also records everything you do, or learn. It encrypted your memories into it too," Sam said.
"Great. Like a backup drive to my brain."
"Right. Let's go!" He went roaring down the road, Clint behind, Violet-Sky following, and TRON bringing up the rear. Clint pulled up alongside Sam within a few moments.
"But, the brain can hold terabytes of information! There's no way a single disc can hold all that!"
"I know. It's not a perfect backup, but it works for temporary amnesia and the like," Sam said.
Violet-Sky had no clue how long they rode the Light Cycles, she only knew that she was starting to get a headache from the weird noises they made and all the contrast. The ribbons of light hurt her eyes from the other's suits and the buildings. Clint's lights were bluish-white. Kind of like his eyes.
After a while, TRON pulled up next to her. "Why are your eyes two different colors?" she called.
"My code was corrupted for a while. The eye is the only thing that remains," the Program replied, shouting over the sound of the engines.
The four reached the water after another good hour of driving. Clint's arm wrapped protectively over Violet-Sky's shoulders and drew her away from Sam Flynn as he walked past them to the edge of the Pixelated Sea. She looked up at him with her eyebrows raised skeptically. "Contrary to your belief, every man I've ever met is not going to fall in love with me," she snapped. Clint didn't even look at her or rebuke her for her tone. She rolled her eyes in exasperation as Sam passed her a baton that instantly lit up purple—corresponding with her suit lights.
After a quick lesson on how to fly a Light Jet, the party of four were flying over the ocean. Violet-Sky was whooping and hollering, having a blast. Sam was smirking, TRON was smiling, and Clint was having just as good a time—he was just being silent about it.
In her Light Jet helmet, she heard Sam speaking to her. "You know, now that you know, you two are welcome to come here anytime you want. It does get kind of lonely with just Programs here all the time," he said. She grinned. "There are so many more things here than just what you saw. There's Disc Wars, Light Cycle races, Light Cycle fights, Light Jet air shows, a huge club on the top of the highest tower that plays the best electronic music in the world, and Programs that are almost human."
"Which, you gotta admit, is a little frightening," Violet-Sky commented sarcastically.
"I sense a great amount of sass in you, Miss Violet-Sky."
"I get it from Clint's side of the family," Violet-Sky retorted.
"And which side is that? Mother or father?"
"Father. The Barton side."
"I can hear you two talking you know," Clint put in.
"Case in point," Violet-Sky muttered at the same time Sam sarcastically retorted, "Ears burning?" Violet-Sky snorted and tried out a barrel roll.
"Look up ahead!" TRON exclaimed, pressing forward past all of them, pointing to a light they were nearing.
"Don't go towards the light!" Clint joked dryly.
"No, you moron, that's the portal," Sam snapped. Violet-Sky nodded with amusement.
They shot towards the light, going through the clouds. These she could feel, unlike the rain that had been falling back in the city. She wasn't wearing gloves like TRON, and the clouds were nicking her skin like tiny needles. It was uncomfortable, but not completely painful. The visor of her helmet was covered in little drops of what looked like legitimate water.
Violet-Sky all but crashed into the landing strip at the portal. Hawkeye had similar results. TRON and Sam came down much more gracefully. Sam was snickering, and trying to hide it. He was failing gloriously. Violet-Sky put her tongue between her teeth and hauled herself to her feet, ignoring Clint's offer of help. "'Kay, so what you gotta do is get close to me and give me your discs. It's the only way for us to get out of here," Sam instructed. They jogged up some steps and saw the bridge to the column of light. Violet-Sky put her hand in Clint's. He squeezed it comfortingly and tugged her along after Sam as he marched confidently across the bridge.
"Wait!" she suddenly exclaimed. She wrenched her hand from Clint's and ran back to TRON. She stuck her hand out. "It was nice to meet you." The Program smiled, shook her hand, and pulled her into a hug.
"It was nice to meet you too. Take care of yourself now."
"I will. I promise." She beamed and went back to Clint and Sam, pulling her disc off of her back and handing it to the younger man standing near the light. He took it and Clint's.
The three of them backed into the portal, Violet-Sky pressed against Clint's side as he wrapped his arm around her again. Sam let the discs go. They travelled up the light. Hair blowing in her face, she waved goodbye to TRON one last time. He grinned and waved back.
Her stomach swooped and wrenched. Everything blurred. She didn't know how long it took, seconds, hours, but suddenly they were back in the old office under the arcade. As she recovered from coming back into reality, Clint and Sam Flynn were exchanging phone numbers and promising to call the other if they ever needed a favor. Before she knew it, Clint was dragging her back up the stairs and out the door. "Bye Sam!" she shouted.
"Bye Violet-Sky! Thanks for reopening the portal!"
End Note: Sorry it's a little rushed. I wasn't exactly sure what to do with this one. Next one will probably be better. Sorry I'm updating this at like midnight, but I'm not going to be home tomorrow. So I'm doing it tonight. Just because I love you guys and I want you to have it sooner rather than later.
Thanks for reading! If you get a chance, check out QBR, it's my other Avengers fic that's got more attempts at humor.
~Cass
