Tron Legacy : Rectifier - Real World Invasion

Chapter Six

Clu awaits his meeting with the leader of America. But betrayal is something he's used to when it comes to humans.

AU, of course.

All government staff are fake-named, including the president.

I do not own Tron or Tron Legacy.

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"We received a report that several people recognized the alien in the announcement to be someone named Kevin Flynn, former CEO of ENCOM, a computer software company. The only problem is Flynn was reported to have disappeared, presumed dead, back in 1989. And even if it were Kevin Flynn, he would have aged 20 years at least. If some alien world received television signals, maybe they chose to use Flynn's face as a template for their fleet leader. Or perhaps he had been kidnapped by these aliens, and a duplicate was created. These ideas are sheer speculation, of course. We don't have any real answers at this time."

"Well, it can't be Flynn, General. This "Commander Clu" appears to be too young to be Kevin Flynn. Oh, and further reports say his son, Samuel Flynn, has recently disappeared as well. Maybe he joined up with his father..."

"Irrelevant!" General Carson said, hitting his palm on the table. "It's this Clu we need more information on. We have few working computer systems, and only because they're outdated. First, we need to get the world's network up and running, and then we need to deal with this Clu."

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Melanie was not sure what to do around Clu, her discomfort obvious since their recent encounter. She wanted to flee the ship, but how? How could she hope to get away with the ship so high up off the ground? If she could get them to land, but again, how could she accomplish that? Since escape was impossible, maybe she should think more about sabotaging Clu's plans. No, not yet. She had been easily discovered just sending a message to Beale, and look what that got her. Better to wait to see what kind of help the president and his people might be.

"How much longer do we wait?" Clu paced the bridge.

"You're not very patient, are you? You are a threat to the entire world, and the fate of my country hangs in the balance. They won't be making rash decisions, Clu. Are you planning to? Mistakes are made with that kind of thinking."

"See how well you understand your own people, Melanie. Work with me. My offer still stands. If you act as my representative, perhaps you can prevent more damage to your world.

"Clu, you threatened to rape me!" She stood from her station and walked over to him, blocking his path.

Unable to move unless he pushed her out of the way, Clu stood with his hands behind his back as he gazed down at the User. "I wouldn't have done that. It was only meant to frighten you."

"Well, you did that alright, damn you!" She hit him on the chest with both of her hands.

Clu didn't budge, since there wasn't enough weight behind her shove. "Relax, it won't happen again...unless you force my hand." Clu wanted to know one thing, so he asked her a question to test her response. "Would the idea of being with me in that manner be so bad?"

Melanie had no idea where this conversation was going, but her current nightmare was filled with so many impossibilities, she stopped trying to make sense of any of it. "I have a boyfriend, Clu!" she retorted.

"You didn't answer my question," he pressed, a smirk on his face. He reached for her chin, holding it up so that he could look into her eyes. "Would it have been so bad?"

"What would you even know about any of that?" She looked at him, admitting to herself that the leader of the invading army of programs was handsome, based on his created likeness of Kevin Flynn. But she never found cruelty attractive in a man. And his goal seemed to be taking over the planet. How could she, a human, agree to that by consorting with the enemy?

"We don't have time to talk about this, Clu." Returning to her station, Melanie looked over her panel just in time to see an incoming message. She raised her hand, crooking her forefinger at Clu. "They're replying. Look, let me do the talking. It will lend some mystery if you say nothing until your meeting with the president." She was relieved to see him nod. She had to keep him from the communications line. His quick temper was not going to help at all if he lost his temper, should things not go his way.

"This is the warship Rectifier. Commanded Clu, standing by." Melanie sat back and waited a couple of minutes. Then she re-opened communications. "What has the president decided? Will he agree to meet with Commander Clu? We want this negotiation process to be completed as easily as possible."

"This is Mark Ables, Senior Advisor to the President. The president has agreed to meet with your commander at 1:00 pm today, if that's alright. Just a heads up, the president will be accompanied by a contingent of armed guards. We can't allow aliens to harm the president."

"We expect nothing else. Our leader will also be protected by his Black Guard. We will see you at 1:00 pm then," Melanie said, ready to sign off.

"There is an area of fairly empty land near the White House where your ship can hover. No landing, please. We'd rather not have any damage to the grounds."

Melanie smiled. "Understood. No damage...yet. Warship Rectifier, out." She turned to Clu and smiled. "Well, that was easy." A dark cloud filled her mind, suddenly warning her of danger.

Clu noticed the change in her expression. "Is something wrong?"

"I don't know. It seems all too easy and may not be, in reality. Be sure to have those guards close to you, just in case." Why was she even giving him advice. This was her chance to escape this nightmare. Maybe she didn't want him dead even if she wanted to get away. Maybe she was afraid they'd shoot her, mistaking her for one of the "aliens".

"If there's a problem..." Clu wasn't sure he wanted to go through with this. It would be easier to just attack with a show of force. Melanie felt this plan was the best one, but if the humans lied, he would be ready. Recognizers hovered around the ship, filled with sentries ready with light wings, staffs and grenades. Light jets flew further out, monitoring all air space heading to the Rectifier.

After their confrontations, Melanie felt she knew how Clu thought. "Do what you have to do to prepare against attack. The president is an honorable man, but he has advisors who may not be quite so willing to cooperate."

"it's already been take care of. I need to speak to the sentries who will take the ground if needed." Clu left the bridge to discuss orders with his Black Guard and the sentries.

Melanie was nervous. She wasn't sure how this meeting was going to turn out. Although she believed in the president, she also knew the pressures he must be facing right now, not only by Congress, but the leaderships of other countries.

Once the Rectifier was over the neighborhood of the White House, Melanie told Clu where to hover the ship. She had noticed fighter jets flying overhead, and was worried they'd try to hem in the ship, keeping it from rising into the upper atmosphere without hitting one of them. How had the military managed to get working jets into the air?

Clu's own fighters were on alert as the ship settled over the unoccupied field, one side exit opening, a ramp lowering to the ground.

As Melanie exited through the open doorway on the left side of the ship, with Clu and his Black Guard close behind her, she noticed the small assemblage of men approaching the ship. The man in the middle she assumed was the president, but it was too far yet to see. There were two men on each side, dressed as she would have expected of the Secret Service. Dark suits and sunglasses. Others stood a few feet further behind. It was the larger groups spread out all around them she was more focused on. It was as if some spidey-sense inside her head was suddenly going off.

Melanie stopped in her tracks. Something wasn't right here. Soldiers appeared, armed with weapons. The so-called Secret Service no longer seemed so concerned about the man they were supposedly protecting. She turned back to Clu. "Get back into the ship. Now!" she hissed. She was forcibly pushing at him to re-enter the door. The Guard instantly formed a barrier between their leader and the men who were still coming toward the ship.

"What's going on?" he demanded. Running like a coward was not in his programming.

Melanie saw the approaching men reaching into their jackets. "Get in! Get the lift moving. I'm right behind you." Melanie slammed her palm against the panel, closing the door while leaving them outside. "We've got to get this ship off the ground."

Clu yelled at waiting groups of sentries, ordering them to keep any humans from entering the Rectifier. He stood his ground, removing his disk, and throwing it at the group of five men, hitting one at the knees, sending him to the ground howling in pain.

Melanie caught her breath, then tried to pull Clu back towards the ship's ramp. When he refused to obey her orders, Melanie tried to explain her behavior. "That man was not the president. They probably counted on you not knowing that. It was a trap to take you hostage, I imagine. Don't you get it, Clu? They think you're a alien. It was a trick to capture you. They probably wanted to interrogate you, maybe even dissect you. It was a trick. Once they had you, they would probably keep you under lock and key to force this ship to stand down. It was just a big deception, and I stupidly fell for it."

Without warning, dirt was kicked up around Melanie and Clu. Explosives began to rain down on the area around the ship's left.

Melanie saw red, and lost her footing. She tried to stand up, but was thrown down hard. Another volley of grenades hit the ground around her. She suddenly felt arms grip her own and pull her upward. Clu had seen her fall, earth being tossed up around her with each explosion. He threw her over his shoulder while she blinked, trying to get her vision back to normal. He reached over the other shoulder and taking off his disk, he sent it flying toward the trio of soldiers manning the missile launcher. One was decapitated with little fanfare. Stunned, the other two men attempted to reload the launcher, but one found the task difficult with a missing arm. The last man decided to hell with it and ran. He didn't get far when Clu sent his disk into the human's back. It returned to him bloody.

As soil was kicked up into the air from a barrage of grenades, Clu was himself thrown to the ground, where he dropped Melanie. He rose and turned on his heel to find her lying on the ground. His user was hurt. Bending down, he picked her up in his arms and carried her to the ship's ramp, opening the door and taking her inside. He lay her on the deck, then went back out to join his sentries. Shouting orders to his Black Guard, they boarded several recognizers, moving up and over the human attackers, raining down a volley of light grenades. They exploded, taking the soldiers by surprise.

Clu then gave the order for his army of sentries to attack the humans without mercy. The Rectifier had been hit, spots on the hull damaged by explosives.

Recognizers flew overhead, while sentries wearing light wings fell upon the advancing soldiers. Joining their batons, the light staffs flying so fast, the humans could not see them to avoid their fatal hits. The programs were not impervious to damage, as some found out when hit by rapid fire from military weapons. But Clu had numbers. Other sentries lobbed light grenades into the bushes and onto the open lawn. The explosions took out any nearby soldiers.

Light jets attacked anything in the air, the energy globules so rigid, they were like bullets. Helicopters fell to their volleys as the light jets come at them, and if they missed, flying into the light ribbons was like hitting a brick wall.

Clu himself led a group of sentries who wielded their disks, throwing them at anyone who moved. The ensuing carnage was grotesque, the battle heated, but the humans were outnumbered, and the weapons they were being beaten with were unlike anything they had experienced.

The jets overhead were able to fly and fire weapons on the attackers by using older computers that didn't require links to mainframes elsewhere.

Clu was furious, and in his fury, he took out one soldier after another, each return of disk brief, until the next throw. He had not fought so hard before. It invigorated him. Hearing the call for retreat from the human leaders, Clu stood down. His disk was covered in red fluid, the residue of the human attackers he had managed to hit. Once silence surrounded the programs, Clu knew they had won. Looking around at the fallen humans, he saw it was a decisive victory. Many of his own programs had been de-rezzed, but they were loyal fighters following his orders and not to be mourned.

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Clu carried an unconscious Melanie to her room. He lay her on the bed and brushed the hair from her face, which looked paler than normal. Looking down at the very still user, he wondered if she would survive her injury. Flynn had not discussed human anatomy in any great detail, but once when he and Clu had raced on light cycles together, the Creator had fallen off his cycle. He sustained a large cut on his bare arm from the cycle itself. Red fluid, not voxels, had dripped from the wound. Flynn had called it blood. If a user lost too much blood, they could die, Flynn had said.

Clu checked the unconscious user...human, to look for her wound. When his hand came away wet and red, he knew he had found the injury. It was her right leg. Unsure what to do, Clu tugged at the tear in her pants, and saw a large red gash on her thigh. Remembering what Flynn had done, he went into the bathroom and wet a small towel. He cleaned the gash then pressed a dry towel on the wound. Clu sat on the bed next to Melanie, holding the dry towel to her leg. She had to live, he thought. He still needed her. There was so much about the outside world he didn't know.

Melanie felt like she was in a heavy fog, and her leg felt like it was on fire. Had she really been shot? She tried to rise up on her elbows, but strong hands pushed her back down. Looking up, Melanie saw it was Clu helping her. He sat back down on the bed, holding the towel to her leg. "What the hell happened out there," she asked.

"Quiet. You have been wounded on your right leg," Clu replied, used to giving orders. "You lost blood, but not enough to dere..die. We fought your human military and defeated them."

"That was one small piece of our entire military, Clu. Better not get cocky." She lay helpless, trying to ignore the pain. "You make a good doctor." She saw a look of confusion on his face, then simply said, "Thank you for saving me. So where are we anyway?"

"After your soldiers stopped fighting, my sentries re-boarded the ship. We're slightly damaged, but we are now stationed five miles above your DC city. The recognizers and light jets are all aboard as well. So what do we do next is something to consider."

"How many sentries did you lose?" She wondered what would happen to those programs left behind. And what would the doctors excited about having dead aliens to dissect actually find inside their bodies.

"Twelve were left behind. But they fought as loyal programs would. I have a question for you, Melanie. Why did you help me?" he asked, his eyes narrowed. "That was your chance to get away."

She looked up into the face of the program, replying in all honesty, "You came here in good faith, Clu. I hoped some sort of agreement could be made, for all our sakes. And they lied! That pisses me off." Her anger only amplified the pain she felt. She groaned in pain, causing Clu to look down at her with worry etched on his face. He could not lose her. He sat beside her on the bed, his hand holding a smaller damp towel. He bathed her forehead with it. When he saw Melanie pass out from the pain, he leaned forward and whispered, "You will not die, Melanie."

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After a few days had passed, Melanie's leg felt better, enough that she could walk to the bridge and sit at her station.

She asked Clu, "Why have you been so attentive lately? I haven't been of much help."

Clu estimated what he could say and not change what was between them at this juncture in their relationship. He paced in front of her. "On this entire ship, there is no program who is my equal. Not one. I can give them orders, and they will obey without question. You, however, are a user. That makes you my equal. We can talk, argue if you want, but we are the same within our kind. I feel I must have you with me, to balance my authority.

Melanie thought she understood his need. Clu was above the others who followed him. Flynn had created him as his equal. To run this place called the Grid, as its leader when Flynn was gone, he needed to be more than just a common program. His sentries could stand for hours until they were called to business. Even Rinzler stood by, waiting for orders. She did Clu's work, but he seemed to regard her as existing on a higher level then his own kind. They were mindless automatons, but she was different. Clu needed her for more than to do the work as his liaison. He needed her for companionship. Now she wanted to find out more about this...Grid, if Clu would answer her questions.

Clu ordered the vessel's pilots to maintain the Rectifier's altitude of five miles above ground. He and Melanie looked out the viewing window below to the ground. Ordering his unwilling helper to rest so as not to tire herself, he offered to return her to her room.

Melanie agreed. Maybe now she could get some answers.

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The physicians on hand were gathered around the autopsy tables where two of the alien bodies now lay unclothed. The others were being kept on ice for now. Everyone marveled at how human they looked. All external body parts were there. Everything had been photographed, then skin and hair samples were taken for closer examination.

One doctor held a scalpel in his hand, ready to check the internal organs. Video was being taken of the procedure that would later bs shared with top military officials. Holding the scalpel tip down, the doctor pierced the skin. In less than thirty seconds, the skin of the alien began to break down into what looked like small cubes. In less than a minute, the alien was gone. His companion also began to degrade, until there was nothing left but a pile of the small cubes. An officer on guard ran to the morgue, but when he opened the door, found every table holding only more cubes.

"Gentlemen, I guess we've seen how these aliens die. Unfortunately for us, there isn't much left. Gather the cubes and we'll study the..."

He was interrupted by the officer who had just come back from the morgue. "Doctor, the aliens on ice dissolved as well. Not long after, the cubes vanished." It was true. The residual cubes of the two creatures here in the lab had also dissolved, much to the dismay of the doctor in charge.

A/N : Sorry this has not been updated lately, but I have new inspiration by a group of vampires called the Volturi. I had this chapter written, but forgot to finish it. The story is still being worked on, albeit slowly.