Chapter 16
Aaron felt low, cowardly, running away from his purpose. But he had to leave the city. The Defenders decided to split. Dep, Orad and Bril were going to stay and keep watch over the broken programs. For the first time in many cycles, they were in danger and the Defenders were faced with revealing themselves. Aaron was escorted by Sage and Tyree, slinking through the lower levels of Tron City, sneaking past patrols of guards to their secret entrance point in the wall. The three approached the lowest step building, cautiously scanning the streets as one at a time, they scaled the sides. Once they'd bounded to the highest step just feet of clearance away from the wall, Sage leapt first. He launched himself far over the clearance, veering away from the closest building and over the black, open street. While in mid air, he broke the two halves of his baton and activated his lightcycle.
"Its time like these when I wish we had lightjets," Tyree scoffed. Aaron barely smirked at the program's little quip, still fuming over abandoning the innocents of Tron City. Aaron followed Sage's stunt, landing with a thud, mounted on his humming lightcycle. The sleek vehicle glided brightly over the black, yet illuminated street. From behind Tyree had done the same. Aaron sped up to meet Sage's left side.
"What's the course?" he shouted over the vibrant hum.
"Just follow me," Sage replied. He then banked right, swerving into an alley between two towering structures of brilliant geometrical architecture. The narrow gap only permitted a straight procession of riders. With Aaron in the middle, he focused carefully on Sage's movements. Sage quickly emerged, rapidly banking right again. At the sight of a speeding blue circuited program, the three guards standing at post across the street erupted in anger. Aaron glowered at them. He instead charged forward, drifting into a sharp turn only after crashing roughly into one of the guards, derezing him on contact. Red crystalline bits showered the angry guards as Aaron sped away, now behind Tyree. He sniggered as he glanced back and saw the other two jumping onto their own lightcycles. Good, he thought. He wanted a fight. Now being behind the procession, Aaron was free to activate his light wall. The brilliant blue ribbon illuminate lethally. From behind, the guard on their glowing red cycles swerved to avoid the wall. One of the guards extracted his disc, igniting it. He heaved it forward into Aaron's light wall. The disc flew and shattered the barrier of light, breaking the liquid like ribbon. The guard swerved through the gap in the ribbon, speeding up to Aaron's left. The other guard sped straight up to Aaron's right. Tyree glanced back to see Aaron get ambushed. Off to his left, was an off ramp to an upper level roadway. He banked to take it. Aaron continued to follow Sage through the maze of streets while struggling to keep the guards at bay. Tyree let up on the throttle, letting Aaron speed ahead slightly before punching into full acceleration. Finally, Tyree approached a merge ramp and took it. As he glided back down on the same level, he stayed behind Aaron, considering the best course of action. In a moment of contemplating his next move, Tyree lost focus. He veered slightly into the brilliant blue glow of Aaron's wall. Before his eyes, the front of his cycle began to defragment. From behind his faceplate, his eyes exploded in terror. With as much might as he could muster, he leaped off the cycle. He cleared the ribbon easily, but the momentum of his cycles speed threw him on the road un-forgivingly. The program skidded on the sleek black road, bounding a few times before planting face first on the road. Aaron and Sage hadn't noticed his absence until they sped into a roundabout, allowing a sideways glance.
"Damn," Aaron growled. Sage nearly lost control of his own cycle while franticly trying to spot his friend. Finally, Aaron spotted the high glow that was the wall of Master City. Not nearly as fortified as Tron City but it was obvious the Disciples opposed programs freely venturing from the city. Suddenly five more guards sped to join the pursuit from the right. Sage swerved sharply right to enter an off ramp. Aaron also swerved sharply, barely allowed large maneuvers from the agonizing close proximity of the guards. Aaron followed; out of desperation the guards, abandoned their taunting pursuit on the user barely avoiding smashing into the walls of the off ramp. Sage drifted up the ramp, circling in an incline. At the top was a vast open lot, with only yards of clearance from the top of the wall, safety was in sight. Sage sped to the end of the lot. Then drited sharply in a u-ey. He waited till Aaron did the same next to him before accelerating at top speed. Aaron watched as Sage sped to the edge of the lot before throwing upward the front wheel of his cycle. Sage gunned his light stream, which gave his cycle a sudden boost. He launched clear over the wall. Aaron took no hesitation as he saw guards one by one spiral up to the lot. He sped forward and copied Sage's stunt exactly. Suddenly, a whirring hum built up over the hum of the cycles. The wall suddenly ignited in red circuitry as the top glowed. As Aaron gunned the light stream a wall of deadly red liquid like light ignited. The wall grew and grew before Aaron's eyes, threatening to either kill him or trap him here in Master City. His cycle launched forward and up over the enclosing deadly barrier. As he attempted to clear the rapidly growing wall, the front of his cycle impacted on the lip of the barrier. His cycle began to shatter as he threw himself off it and barely skimmed his suit. From behind, his cycle exploded in a splash of light, throwing him forward into the open air. Aaron's limbs flailed helplessly as he was thrown nearly sixty feet into the black clouded sky. He counted the seconds of pure free fall which scared the crap out of him. After a count of ten seconds, Aaron impacted hard on the rough terrain of the Grid. He had tried to prepare himself for the crash, trying to land on his feet and let his legs collapse, but instead he landed on his side. The momentum of the fall kicked him back up and skidded and scraped on the rough almost rocky terrain. Finally Aaron scraped to a stop a full hundred yards from the now enclosed perimeter of Master City. As Aaron lay on the ground, he lost all sense of consciencness for a mere thirty seconds.
"I'm dead he old himself. That fall just shattered every bone in my body, inflicted trauma to my brain. There's no way I survived that, even here on the Grid. After the pestilent ringing in his ears faded out, he heard the hum of Sage's cycle. The program dismounted the vehicle and rushed to Aaron's side.
"Aaron, come on get up!"
'Get up?' Aaron thought to himself. 'I'm dead you moron,'
"Com'on Flynn, you've got to get out of here. Sage hefted Aaron's broad form up into a sitting position. Aaron was sickeningly dizzy, and his vision was hazy. To his surprise, as Sage hefted him to his feet, his legs actually supported him. The bones were intact, but just extremely sore. A striking pain in his shoulder told him of its dislocation, or at least it was. He felt the pain slide away as functionality returned to him. He lifted his gnarled, scraped hands up to his face. He felt the warmth of his blood smear over his face and over his fingers, just a really bad cut, no trauma. His ribs too were sore but to his surprise were intact. As his vision began to clear, he was able to discern Sage guiding him to his waiting light cycle. "Go Flynn, I'll hold them off," Sage growled.
"But, what about-" he mumbled before being cut off from Sage.
"No time go get away from here." Aaron looked back at Sage. "Get to the portal Flynn!" Sage barked.
"No Aaron finally mustered the ability to project coherent words. "I'm not leaving." Sage and Aaron glowered at each other for a span of seconds.
"Then go west," Sage said. Aaron swore before accelerating away from Sage, who stood in the midst of the wall. Aaron zipped down the vast open flat of the Grid just on the outskirts of Master City. He had sped away for what felt like hours. The pain of his fall was suddenly starting to settle on him, making his beaten body ache. More hours passed, his mind raced with the recent events that had just transpired. As the pain grew and grew, his cycle started to sputter. The blue circuitry flickered then faded. For hours now he had been pressing forward to the vast canyons clear past the other side of the city. Within the grueling hours, the dark canyonous terrain was fast approaching. It wasn't till he met the foot hills that his cycle finally gave out. The cycle gave one final flash before finally digitally collapsing back into the two halves of the baton. Aaron tumbled forward where the front wheel had been. He rolled over his back, crashing head over heels until he scraped into the canyon wall falling into a deep state of unconscienceness.