In which Sora and Nemurin have no luck with the law enforcement.
A lone figure smirked a little to himself as he gazed out at the world of his working, of his perfection's craft. After a few moments of silence, the registration of an identified program was signalled outside the room, a voice from his monitor alerting, "Requesting permission to access."
"Access granted." CLU answered.
The door behind him slid open in one movement as a guard, dressed entirely in black, stepped into the room and bowed once in reverence. "Master CLU - programs matching the descriptions given by your benefactors have been spotted in a sector of Tron City."
"Good, good. Bring the boy here to me. If he doesn't comply, then use the necessary level of force - but bring him here in one piece. Understood?" CLU instructed.
"Yes. And the other one?"
"The girl is to be treated as a stray program. When found, isolate her for quarantine."
"Understood." the guard then turned around, and was about to exit the room, until CLU raised a hand.
"One more thing," their leader asserted. One who looked closely enough could see the small traces of a dark smile playing across his features, that which resembled his creator, the one he resented most, set apart by the cruelty that lurked underneath. "Rinzler will be attending with you...I see it as only fitting that he be met with his 'friend',"
Nemurin had felt a wave of uncertainty slowly drift through her heart as the light overtook her and Sora's forms where they once stood in the cathedral; from the outside, it looked as if they had simply faded away with the pane of light that had emerged from the Keyhole, like dust in the wind - gone without a trace. Yet, despite the soothing caress she felt brush over her at its first touch, and its last, and the knowledge the world they stood in would be different and would hold its own vast reaches to explore, brand new and shining, she couldn't shake the questions that emerged in her head, and it seemed Sora was little different in that regard - on the contrary, his furrowed brow, his eyes evading contact, staring out as he had when he had first unlocked the Keyhole and the unnatural quiet he exuded both literally and metaphorically seemed to suggest that his thoughts were even more pursued by the unnatural omen they had been left with by the hooded youth.
Images of what preceded now formed within Nemurin's mind - the first meeting out in the boundary, the encounter Sora recounted to her just short of their own, the devious exchange she had eavesdropped in on between himself and Frollo, the tinge of shadow that beset their once light-filled victory against Frollo and his wickedness - as she tried to make some sense out of any of it. This was normally the part where someone more logical and thoughtful would likely say, 'The pieces are all there,' and perhaps they were - but the means to understand the details of the pieces were another matter entirely, at least for Nemurin.
She backtracked once again, this time to the words he had said to Sora; 'Hypocrite. You are the one who has made your heart a prison,'
Nemurin wasn't one to take that sort of thing literally; the brainpower required to understand how that could even work when such a thing never existed in the world from which she came was effort better spent considering the possibilities that were actually feasible. Was it referring to something else? A burden or lost wish of some sort from Sora's past that he kept locked away, just as Quasimodo had locked himself and his courage away for all the years before? She'd confess, despite his youthful smile and appearance, everything she'd seen of Sora thus far indicated he was someone who had far more experience than his initial demeanour might suggest, and he hadn't been quite open about the specifics of what he had experienced prior to taking the test.
The test...could that be a part of it? Personally speaking, there was nothing more that tired Nemurin's brain back in the mortal coil than an exam of some sort. Perhaps he still held some anxieties over it, both for himself and for that friend he had begun with, Riku - the one who he was being rendered unable to reach. Could it be the hooded figure doing that? It wouldn't surprise her, were that to be true. But it all came down to the one thing that couldn't quite be explained in full - why?
Why was he after Sora, and if he wanted him captured, then why did he previously appear and then disappear after leaving his cryptic message behind? The fact that he wanted the boy alive did little to settle her questioning, in fact, it offered the opposite effect. And worse yet, Nemurin wasn't quite certain of what solutions there even were, if any; convincing Sora to go wasn't an option, not from his perspective, as far as she could take away from it. After all, he'd come here for an explicit purpose - to awaken the Sleeping Worlds - and it was not a purpose Nemurin could fulfil in his place, lacking the blade that seemed to rouse the world from its slumber. She could try dreaming one up, but she couldn't help but think that would be the same as putting out a fire with gasoline...for now, the best option would be to keep going. It awakened the worlds as they went, and it meant they had more chances of encountering the figure and deciphering what it was he was after.
Roused from her thoughts by the removal of the light, Nemurin and Sora's eyes opened as they were given the reveal as to where they'd landed. The pair stood on a black street, with each path and road metallic and monochrome, the sole exception being the cyan glow that ran like circuitry in lines all of an equal distance from each other. Everything, from the streetlights to even the crossings on the road all followed this formula, giving a distinctly futuristic vibe to the whole place, it sorta reminded Nemurin of that one group from her world, the one from overseas with the black suits and the helmets, the one whose name she couldn't quite remember. Anyways, the sensation the whole place gave her was at war; the people, all dubbed as if uniform in the same cybernetic attire, that strolled by them, the tall skyscrapers, even little things like small signs all reminded her a bit of home, of the city, of a certain liveliness - even with everything mostly being black and grey, it only made the bright cyan blue that lined all of it pop. But yet, there was also something that spoke the opposite to her; maybe it was the darkness of the colours, the fact they looked like they were in some form of sci-fi game, or something else entirely, but there was also inhumanity in it, at least to her. Maybe it was the fact that, aside from everything she saw and the things she heard - chatter, people making their way past, the growl of vehicles and machinery - there was also something...lacking. The taste and scent of stands in the street? The feeling of warmth against the people who brushed by? Who knew - she certainly didn't.
Speaking of warmth, the rustle of Sheppy by her legs prompted Nemurin to look down, as Sora took in their surroundings. "Woah...where..." he began, only to take a glance down at his clothes, and Nemurin realised that his outfit had been drastically altered. It would seem that the abruptness of the change in their surroundings had left their previous thoughts to the wayside, even if only for now.
Morgana, who remained at his side as they left La Cite Des Cloches amidst his shift to uncertain silence, suddenly bounced back a little bit, standing stiffly on her tiny legs as she stared up at him, almost questioningly. Giving a small sniff at him, Sora sighed a bit, "C'mon, Morgana, it's me!" he said, before giving a point to one of his spikes of hair. "Surely you recognise these, right?" he added, almost teasingly.
Giving a little grumbly whine, Morgana nevertheless padded back towards him, and then gave another one of what sounded a fair bit like begrudging agreement.
"Did you find a changing room between here and Paris?" Nemurin asked, tilting her head a bit. "Gotta say, you look pretty awesome~ You look like the hero of a sci-fi show and everything." she remarked, gently.
She wasn't kidding; Sora's look was distinctly his own, yet it still bore the same black and blue palette as the rest of the city. He now was clad in black armour with circuitry that lit up almost every section of him, managing to make him appear as bright as ever. His head was partially covered by a black helmet and visor, with his brown spikes still managing to find their way to the sides of his head. She had to say, he suited the look~
"No, but..! This outfit...! I know where we are...!" Sora chirped, only to give her an eye up and down. "Nemu! Look at you! You look so cool!"
"Me?" Nemurin questioned, a bit puzzled.
Sora folded his arms in thought. "Ah, if I had a mirror I'd show you; but you have the same get-up as me!" he explained.
Finally having the chance to look down, Nemurin's eyes widened like a balloon being blown up. It was as if she'd taken a cyberpunk aesthetic to bed tonight; her clothing had darkened, with metallic armour covering her elbows, shoulders and chest, all while still feeling pretty light, and the pattern on her pyjamas also gave off a bright cyan glow. She too, in hindsight, also wore a visor as she felt about her face, but the layout didn't cover her head like Sora's did. As a matter of fact, as she felt at the shape of it, it was almost like a sleeping eye mask in its structure. Even the clouds that liked to hang about her wore the same little visors!
"Oohhh, neat...I hadn't even realised ending up here could change my look~ Fav always said that us Magical Girls couldn't change our outfits once we got chosen for the job." Nemurin trailed off.
"Really?" Sora repeated, blinking a little before offering a grin. "Wellll, technically it's not you changing it in this case - it's Yen Sid's magic, the same way my clothes changed."
"Why does it do that, actually?" Nemurin asked. "Like, change our clothes in this world but not in the last one,"
"It's all about keeping the world order," Sora stated, scratching the back of his head slightly. "It's a bit of a long story, but the gist is we'll only get the minimum that's needed to make us blend in wherever we go,"
Nemurin offered a little laugh in reply. "Well, it didn't seem to do much for us the last time..." she retorted a bit sheepishly, recalling the comments the both of them had received from Frollo only a world before.
"Yeahhh, it can be weird like that," Sora laughed a tad bashfully, but his eyes remained distinctly alight, the same way they did when you were faced with a dear friend whom you'd been separated from for ages, or given a pleasant surprise by someone who cared about you, or when you finally got to go back to a place and its fond memories you'd been apart from. "Anyways, I've actually been here before! Or at least, someplace like it!"
"You have?"
"Yeah! A while back, my friends, Donald and Goofy and I went to a place called Space Paranoids; we did a lot there, and we even met another friend of ours!" Sora recounted, sunnily. "TRON, his name was. I wonder if we can find him somewhere around here...though...I don't know TRON's world ended up here."
Nemurin placed a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't worry about it. We'll figure it out as a team and get this world freshened up again, and we'll find your friend too~ I bet he'll be glad to see you again." she assured, smiling.
Sora gave a spirited nod. "You're right. Now it's just to figure out where to start..." he added.
Suddenly, a whip of wind passed their ears with a roar far above their heads; as the quartet turned their attentions upwards (all except for Sheppy, who bleated and cowered behind Nemurin's legs a little bit), they were faced with an impressive sight. In the sky soared a massive airship made of what looked like steel, possessing an odd shape - it was like one line at the head, that then split into two others, almost like an upside down-U. Unlike the bright blues that decorated this digital city, the airship's circuitry was of a thin golden orange colour instead, with a hint of red present in what little of the interior could be seen from down below.
"Cool, check it out, Nemu!" Sora pointed, his finger following the ship as it flew off into the distance. "Let's see what it is. It gives us a place to start off, at least, right?"
Nemurin offered a nod in reply. "You've got a point~" she said, before stretching her arms a little bit. "Let's go,"
With that, the two combatants and their Spirit companions set off in the airship's general direction, attracting a few small stares as they went. The cityscape, though changing in shape for each building and structure, remained much the same in colour; it made her glad there was only a general direction they had to follow for their first little mission, as the worry of getting lost otherwise couldn't help but worm its way into her head.
Sora, Nemurin, Morgana and Sheppy's progress on foot was far from unimpressive, quickly having made their way from the inner workings of the city to its outer reaches. Somewhat surprisingly, Nightmares weren't too frequent on the way there, and those that were ended up being shot own by the scream of grenades or the rip of a spear or the cut of strange discs.
As they made their way through, Sora couldn't help but comment, "I gotta say, I wasn't expecting us to get this far without a fight. Maybe this world will be easier to get through than the last one?"
"At the very least, I hope we don't end up with the local law enforcement after us like before...that'd be exhausting, dealing with that back to back," Nemurin responded, her usual sleepiness finding its way into the last fringes of her comment.
Sora let out one humourless chuckle, "You can say that again,"
Even with the sunny energy he almost always seemed to possess, it went without words that getting anywhere when the guards were posted at every city wall and all of said guards wanted to drag you kicking and screaming to their leader was nothing short of a nightmare, only less of one than the actual monsters they had to fight off.
As the pair walked forward, they soon spotted the upside down-U airship as it landed, not too far off from them. Metal walkways held themselves high above the abyss lurking below where the city was positioned, leading to what almost looked like a selection of docks. The same figures in black, differentiated only by their circuitry, patrolled in various different directions in the surrounding areas as the small group approached.
"Wanna get closer?" Nemurin wondered.
"You bet," Sora grinned a bit, before the four of them began to move; only for a harsh, metallic voice to interrupt their line of thought.
"Halt." it ordered, prompting Sora and Nemurin to stop. Morgana sniffed the air a little, readying her combat stance, while Sheppy shivered, wavering between fleeing back behind Nemurin and getting ready to bowl these strangers down like they were ninepins.
A quadruple set of guards, practically clones of those who surrounded them, approached with weapons in hand and soulless gazes invisible from behind their face-covering helmets. Next to Sora, they looked nowhere near as bright and were not particularly friendly-looking either to compensate.
"Sorry, I probably should have figured there was a chance this would be considered trespassing...it's okay, we'll go-" Nemurin began to explain, her mind figuring that would probably be the reason - after all, there were quite a few people like the guards around, and she and Sora weren't exactly one of them. Just as she was raising her hands in what would socially be considered polite surrender, the guard spoke up harshly.
"Identify." the guard stated. "State your handles."
Nemurin blinked a little, trying to remember if anything in any old computing classes happened to mention handles. Well, if it did, she was coming up blank, and whoever taught her it would be feeling inclined to shake their head in disappointment right about...now. For a second, she looked to Sora, not really suspecting he'd have any more clue than she did, and sure enough, his eyes registered little thought; no thoughts, head empty, a sentiment that apparently went for the both of them.
"I, uh..." Sora began, resting his hands behind his head. "We don't have any handles, I don't think...do you, Nemu?"
"Not a clue,"
"But my name is Sora!" Sora introduced himself, his gaze warm.
Nemurin gave a wave that wasn't immediately obvious, thanks to the limp way her sleeves hung from her arms, even when it was bound by metal armour. "I'm Nemurin~" she added.
"Verifying handle...'Sora'...'Nemurin'..." the guard answered robotically, before two of them turned to Nemurin, warranting Sheppy to bleat like an accused person on the stand. "Handle not found. Isolating for quarantine."
Oh no.
The other two had turned to Sora, "Compliance required. Attempts to violate will necessitate force."
Oh. Oh no.
The two guards in front of Sora swiftly took hold of an arm each, and the two in front of Nemurin did the same to her and began to drag her in the opposite direction. "Hey...!" Nemurin protested, twisting and forcing her body forward in a struggle; her usual strength had dimmed, but she still felt she had one-up on these two.
Glancing upward and seeing the sleepy girl who had found him being handled harshly, Sheppy's timid eyes instead reflected something seen in him only rarely; something he expressed by smashing like a bat to the guard's legs, forcing them into a stumble and swiftly loosening their grasp on Nemurin. She moved forward quickly, as Sora himself was tugging and writhing against the guards' hold.
"Talk about unfriendly...! Let go!" Sora cried out, managing to lunge his body forward. As his two temporary assailants tried to follow after him, Morgana wasted no time, waiting until they reached her before leaping high into the air and plunging back down, knocking them to the metallic floor.
"Pursue and destroy. Pursue and capture!" one of the guards rose ordered those that surrounded it, and they all swiftly set into action.
Now grabbing the other's hand, Sora and Nemurin, now followed by their Dream Eaters as well as their pursuers, bolted down the walkways, straight off the steps and back into the wide city's streets, garnering apathetic gazes as they darted away from their enemies. As confident as Nemurin was in their abilities to fight, she was pretty sure that taking on a whole crowd of those guys was a move that was a bit too risky; especially considering they were like a fish from a gentle pond ending up in a predator-filled ocean.
Fortunately, though the thousands of 'programs' within the crowd didn't seem at all eager to offer them much help, they didn't seem particularly invested in their loss either; that probably wouldn't last, admittedly, but while it did, they might as well take advantage of it. The numerous footsteps that clattered behind them sent Nemurin and Sora's hearts pounding as they sprinted in hopes of finding the direction that would offer them temporary safety, the rush of chaos that came from the pursuit striking across their ears. To tell the truth, neither of them had any idea where they were going, darting down one back street and another and another - never stopping, even as the sound of pursuing footsteps grew softer than it was before. Eventually, as they found themselves in another alley (their saviour when being chased down, as it would seem), next to a massive tower, they pressed their backs against the walls of the surrounding building, leaving them out of general sight. Not even daring to breathe, the two of them waited without a word as they heard their pursuers slowly survey and skulk about the area, still far yet all too close to their current location, scanning for anything that would give them away.
After what felt like an hour stretched out to infinity, the searching came to a halt around the area. "Proceed forward." and with that, there was some silence, as the dust began to clear, the voices that had called out in surprise as they bolted through the city streets slowly returned to their personal chatter and the sounds of casual, relatively non-aggressive footsteps were all that walked this side of the street.
"Are they gone...?" Nemurin mouthed to Sora, allowing her head to turn ever so slightly.
Sure enough, as she brought out a bit more dare in herself and leaned slightly over, the guards in pitch black had, at least for now, gone to look for them elsewhere. "I think we're in the clear...?" she mouthed again, allowing them to slowly emerge from their hiding spots, the only sound aside from the drone of the digital city being the broken spark of an electric streetlamp above their heads.
Taking in a large puff of breath, Sora's arms flapped downwards as he bent slightly, "Finally...jeez, what was that about...?" he questioned.
"No idea..." Nemurin sighed. "You don't think...you don't think what's-his-face has already gotten here, do you...?"
"I hope not..." Sora answered, somewhat somberly. Throwing his head back a little, he folded his arms as he leaned against the wall. "We didn't even get to do anything to get into trouble this time...!" he added, in a voice that toed the line between disbelief and indignance, throwing his arms up a little.
"In trouble?" a sultry, robotic voice that certainly wasn't Nemurin's sprang up beside them.
"Not again!" Nemurin and Sora's voices chimed in unison, only for them to turn and see a lone woman standing before them.
Against the visage others before her had held, she stood out like a diamond in a pit of dust. Clad in an off-white bodysuit with pure white circuitry lining her attire, she wore her platinum blonde hair in a tight bun above her head, and her expression was difficult to discern - really, all of her was best described as pale. "You needn't worry. I'm not going to cart you in,"
Sora breathed in quiet relief, giving the woman an apologetic look. "Phew...sorry about that, miss...?"
"Gem," the woman answered. "My name is Gem,"
"Gem...sorry, Gem." Sora began. "It's just...well, we're looking for someone, and we ended up doing something to rile up those guards..." he explained.
"We're not sure what, though...we existed in the same space as them and that's when they started chasing us," Nemurin interjected.
Gem's brow rose a little in what looked to be interest. "What is it you're looking for...? Because, if there's someone from back when you're wanting to find, I might know a place."
"There's a friend of mine we're looking for; I've not been in anything like this place for a while, so we've not really got any idea of where to start..." Sora admitted, bashfully. "Really? You know a place we can go?"
Gem gave a single confident nod in reply. "That's right. I can take you there," she confirmed.
Sora pondered for a moment, before looking to Nemurin. "Say, Nemu - what do you think we should do?" he inquired, his hands behind his head again.
Shrugging a little, Nemurin swung her arms back slightly, "Well...it's not like we've got many other options. And even if it doesn't lead us anywhere, it's at least a start. And even if it's not, we'll at least be out of sight from those jerks from before, right?~"
"You've got a point," Sora agreed, giving a small bop of the head before turning to Gem. "Okay, Gem! Lead the way." he agreed, sunnily.
Turning away from them, Gem gestured her head a bit. "My pleasure." she said, her smile once again unreadable.
Where she led them wasn't too far from where they started; with them ending up at the doors of an elevator that sat at the bottom of the tall tower. It was solid only in the ground and the roofing, while its walls were only of glass. She had to say, those sorts were always the ones she liked being in - it was relaxing, to just stand and watch the world grow smaller, having nothing to do but taking it in...ah, finally, a relaxing thought. There hadn't been one of those for a bit...
As Gem stood silently beside them, Sora found himself turning around, faced with the city view, one Nemurin chose to take in with him. She had to say, even if its expression of colours were fairly limited, she'd be lying if she said there wasn't a certain grandeur to the place as a whole. The digital world stretched on for miles away, miles that only seemed to grow in number the higher the elevator went. But what caught their attention most of all was what lay beyond the city; it possessed an aura of mystery and not the welcoming sort, leading off into a black abyss, the only thing out there besides it being various airships going back and forth above its depths.
"Woah..." Sora muttered to himself as he took it in.
"Enjoying the view?" Gem remarked.
"Hmhm..." Nemurin replied.
Eventually, the elevator reached its destination at the top of the tower, and the doors pulled back at each side. At the tower's head, the open doors now revealed a large area about the size of an apartment in some of the more well-off districts in N-City - its floors were sleek and glowed with the same cyan light that filled almost any other location within the Grid, but at the room's centre was a dancefloor, strewn with lights above it. To the right, in a small chamber only visible through a small rectangular window, were two DJs, their music blaring in movements that instinctively made Nemurin's head want to bop along. Various and numerous people, mostly in cyan but a few in orange, enjoyed the leisure offered by the club, dancing to the music as it played, chatting with others around them either standing or seated comfortably just a bit away from the dancefloor or...other things, judging by how...close some of these folks seemed to be.
Gem strutted in a fashion of self-assurance, speaking up before the thought could even register; "Don't worry about the ones in orange, by the way. As you can see, they're...occupied." she stated.
"R-right," Sora agreed, shifting a little awkwardly. "So, who is it you're taking us to?"
"Zuse, his name is." Gem explained, not looking at them still as she led the way forward. "But first, you'll need to get through Castor; anyone who wants to speak to Zuse has to get through him first."
"We can handle that, right?~ How bad can that be next to everything else before now?" Nemurin posed the question, allowing a hint of a confident smile to grace her features. Sheppy looked up at her, grazing about her feet slightly.
"Exactly!" Sora agreed, perking up. "Let's give talking to this Castor a try. Thanks again, Gem!" the boy spoke gratefully, giving a small wave to the program in white, who said little, simply offering that same smile as she went to sit down.
This time though, that smile was something Nemurin wasn't quite so sure about.
Castor was noticeable even from a distance away; like Gem, he was clad in white, white hair, white coat, white trousers, white everything. The male was amidst loud chatter with another, only for the two to feel his eyes land on them instead. "Well, well; who's this?" he questioned. "A unique experience, this one - as it would happen, I've not seen you two around here before...!" Castor trailed off, his voice flicking with a certain energy, a flamboyance in each movement he made.
"You're Castor, right...?" Sora inquired, his head tilting a little.
"You've heard it right...!" Castor confirmed. "But let's be honest my boy and say it's not too polite to answer a question with another question,"
Sora's eyes widened ever so slightly in recognition of his action, before he apologised hastily, "A-ah, sorry...! I'm Sora, and this here is Nemurin. We're here because we were looking for someone called Zuse?"
"Nemurin, Sora, fancy names, those ones," Castor commented, swinging his cane slightly as he walked, eyeing them up and down before taking hold of a drink. "See, there's one issue with that; many are, and Zuse doesn't just attend to anyone, but you're free to take a drink, courtesy of the End of Line Club!" At that, he rose his drink slightly, before taking a prominent swig of it himself.
"Now, hold on a second!" Nemurin asserted, her pigtails bouncing a little with her movement. "We're not here to get drunk. He's too young for that anyway, we're looking for someone important."
"Someone more important than Zuse, you say?"
Sora spoke next, his voice ripe with conviction. "Well, important to me, anyways; TRON, his name is TRON." his eyes almost seemed to glitter with memory, brief as they may have seemed. "I met him a long time ago, but I'm hoping to see him again."
It was only at this name that they seemed to have caught his attention, his white brow rising into a distinct arch. Putting his glass down, he tapped his cane slightly against the floor. "Now that's a name I've not heard for a while - come then, this is a conversation best held behind closed doors, I'm sure you agree."
With that, he began to move forward, leading into another room. Briefly, Nemurin glanced at Sora, who seemed to shrug in confirmation of their current success, the pair and their companions now following behind him.
Once away from nosy ears, Castor wasted little time in chatting again. "I have to say you two, you two have kicked up quite the stir, or so I've heard as someone who enjoys remaining informed."
Sora blinked in puzzlement. Nemurin folded her arms, "Uh...how? We only just got here. And who's CLU?"
"Regardless, that doesn't change the fact that CLU's got quite the interest in you, or so I've been told," Castor continued, swiftly. "CLU is the Grid's current leader, dictator, overseer, whichever word takes your fancy...! And according to a few little birds of mine, a certain two figures appeared and absolutely decimated CLU's forces; however! It would seem that these two had something to offer CLU, and it would seem that something was 'you'."
"Wait, what were they wearing? The figures, I mean," Nemurin asked. "Because if they were wearing black coats, then..."
"We've been dealing with one of them lately, to put it one way." Sora finished, putting it simply. "But we don't know what they're up to, all you need to know is that they're trouble."
Flicking his cane in his hand once again, Castor approached them, his eyes seeming to gleam. With what, Nemurin wasn't quite sure. "Wonderful, the Grid's been lacking in that sort for a while," he noted, a tint of sarcasm lacing his voice at that. "Now - you were looking to learn about TRON, weren't you?"
"Yes!" Sora's eyes glimmered a little. "Does Zuse know about him?"
"That he does, because I do." Castor, or Zuse, answered with a certain flair; of course, he was going to wait for the perfect moment to reveal that little tidbit. It seemed in line with what little they'd seen of him, that was for sure.
"So where is he?"
Shatter. Smash.
The glass of the roof had been broken into pieces from above their heads a ways away, and it didn't fail to catch their attention. Darting out of the room, Sora and Nemurin leaned over the railing to take in what had just broken through. Sora felt his gut drop - stood there, in the middle of the floor and above the pixellated ruins of an unlucky patron, was one of the many figures in black. But yet, this one was different from the others. Somehow his apparel was the darkest of all of them, only having one form of identification for which side he stood on; the small orange marks at his feet, knees, waist, gut, throat and head. Two discs of the same palette were held in his hand, one of which he used to slice down a patron in blue who rushed to attack him, the others around fleeing desperately, the name Rinzler slipping past their lips all the while.
'Rinzler?' Nemurin questioned, eyes widening a little as she looked at the fatal figure in front of them.
"You said it was TRON you were looking for?" Zuse repeated, his tone eerily casual next to what had just happened in his club. Allowing Sora to get a good look at the eerie figure in black, he spoke a selection of words that were enough to allow a drop of darkness inside, gesturing a little to the figure.
"...You've found him."
A/N: And a lovely cliffhanger for y'all to finish our first chapter in the Grid! Y'all are actually getting this chapter earlier than planned, since I was originally gonna publish this on Tuesday, but the fact I have an important exam/quiz for a uni class of mine that I want to do as early as possible means you're getting it today. My plan starting out ended up being different than the one in the outline; originally, I was going to follow just the original set of events from the game, since I'm not intimately familiar with the TRON universe, but I decided to at least check out TRON Legacy and it was actually quite enjoyable, at least for me. I've actually been looking forward to this one, since the Grid does offer some pretty interesting emotional stuff for poor Sora, what with one of his old buddies basically getting brainwashed into being CLU's evil enforcer.
Thanks again to Tsuuji and CaptainImaginat for the reviews! I always love reading reviews for my story, it really helps with my desire to keep this story rolling! I'll see you next chapter!