Tron: He Fights for the Users

The program watched intently, nodding his head when necessary. This ordeal would, no doubt be a painful one; the emotions surrounding it would be hard to crush, but Beck would do it. If there was anything he could fix, any mistake he could avoid repeating, it was this one. No more programs had to derezz for his mistakes. No more broken things like him needed to be born from the great ruin his hero left in his wake.

“No, sir.” Beck sighed.

He figured it’d be the appropriate title for Enforcer, given the militaristic hierarchy of CLU’s elite.  

Yes , it would be difficult, but that was the nature of justice, wasn’t it?

The officer responded with a short but firm nod, and stepped around behind Beck to unlock the cuffs. He believed the program’s word, though of course, there were contingencies in place regardless– every elevator and door between sectors of the admin tower required an authorization code to open. If Beck did run, he wouldn’t make it far.

   “Once this is over - once we’re free of him -          if you’d like to continue serving under my          command, I could arrange for you to be          rectified. Your memories would be          overwritten; replaced with new ones–          you’d be given new purpose, free of          the pain that Tron has caused you.”

Shortly before the start of the next micro, he had set his strategy into motion. The message that Dyson held the Renegade prisoner and would let him leave unharmed if the real Tron turned himself in had been broadcast on every military-controlled billboard and holographic projector on the Grid. The leading security officer had ended his transmission by threatening to torture Beck to death if Tron failed to show up, as he glared menacingly into the camera, holding a circular blade similar to the one he’d used on his former supervisor all those cycles ago– he was confident that it would get Tron’s attention.

Embedded in the transmission was an encrypted signal that gave the coordinates to their location. Civilians wouldn’t know it was there - Dyson didn’t want a large group of them showing up to watch - but he knew that Tron would look for it.

He stood near the center of the vacant lot, hands clasped behind his back, ready to draw his disc given a fraction of a nano’s notice. He’d instructed Beck to stay near him, to kneel on the ground in a submissive posture, let Tron believe that he was helpless– he’d put cuffs around Beck’s wrists once again to complete the image, but they were unlocked; the mechanic could take them off at will.

The recognizer he’d driven here was parked about 150 meters back; accessible, but far enough away that neither he nor Tron could readily use its structure for cover. Four Black Guards stood by– two between them and the recognizer; two on the other side of the lot. They were eerily still, though they stood in neutral postures… Their purpose here wasn’t to capture or derezz Tron; merely to serve as a distraction.

Dyson had gone over his intended strategy with Beck in detail on the way here– he would first try to lead Tron to the recognizer; then fight him if it became necessary. Given the circumstances, Tron wouldn’t identify Beck as a threat, wouldn’t pay much attention to the mechanic– which would make it easy for Beck to use the stun grenade on him while he was focused on Dyson.

Easy, in theory-- the officer was planning contingencies for every way that he could see this scenario going badly. By organizing the maneuver so as to put Tron in a vulnerable position, he’d put himself in one as well– and he was well aware that if it came down to a fight, he might not be the one walking away.

Tron was, without a doubt, the better fighter. That was a risk Dyson would have to take– if he upheld the standard of perfection, he would not fail, and the threat that was his former commander would finally be subdued…

He waited.

It didn’t take him long to find the embedded coordinates, hidden in the message. He clearly wanted the exchange to take place in private, so whatever he was planning could happen without excess witnesses. He obviously didn’t want to have to clean up any more loose ends than he had to.

Tron paced the floor of the lair, trying to decide what to do in the limited time he had. What he COULD do. He couldn’t risk Beck getting derezzed. Not only would it mean he would lose the program who was his last friend in the entire system, but the uprising would be crushed. How could the citizens of the Grid expect Tron to save them and overthrow CLU if he couldn’t even save the Renegade? He had no option but to respond. And, brilliantly, if he didn’t either show up captured and likely rectified on every datastream on the grid, or make some public appearance after a daring rescue that would put Dyson right back on their scent, not a single program would know what happened. They would all assume that the Renegade, that Beck had been abandoned by Tron as he fled to save his own render. Brilliant positioning. Tron expected no less of Dyson.

Tron was running out of time. He had to go. He had to do something. In the end, the uprising would have to survive. He would have to show that he was willing to put it all on the line to save the system. To save his friend. Besides, if he lost Beck, he wouldn’t have anyone left.

Tron had made a brief but careful surveillance of the area before making his final approach on lightcycle. Dyson was not giving him any way to make this easy. Guards were posted close enough to be a concern, but far enough away that they weren’t an immediate one. Given the nature of the situation, he couldn’t expect them to be the lackluster Argon variety, and had to consider them as dangerous as if he’d trained them himself. He likely did.

There was no structure near enough to cause enough of a distraction to rescue Beck, nor was there an easy route of escape that didn’t leave them exposed. If they were both going to make it out of this, it was going to be by fighting their way out.

Tron stepped off the cycle, collapsing it down into a baton that went on his hip, ready for quick reactivation once the time was right. He knew he was the underdog here, but there was nothing he could do about it except spring the trap and deal with the aftermath.

His helmet retracted as he walked into the lot, staying on it’s edge, unwilling to get too close, at least not yet.

((This post was inspired by the game TRON: RUN/r. Instead of Anon in the player position, I’m putting TRON, post legacy. Feel free to spin this off into thread! PLEASE spin this off into a thread. I wanna get back into this.))

He had to run.

He had to escape.

His code screamed at him as his feet pounded the ground as he dodged and weaved through the city. Walls of virus-infected code sprang up before him, and he flung his disk to clear it. Gridbugs swarmed up in the wake of the shattered code, and his disk flashed again, returning them into tiny fragments of ones and zeroes.

And he never missed a step.

Chasms opened up in front of him, and he leapt, using a stolen wingchute to glide over the gap, running along walls for extra distance. His escape was being watched. It was being followed by the viruses and fragmented programs who had set themselves up as rulers of the remnants of the Grid after Flynn’s sacrifice. They knew, should Tron escape, he would stop them. There was no question. If they did not crush the Hero of the Grid now, he would escape and he would bring them down.

It was in his base code.

Continuing with his momentum, TRON leapt over the bike and pulled it’s passenger off, quickly stepping back toward the center of the road. He let the program decide what to do with the bike.

“Thank you.” She approached him cautiously. Now wasn’t the time to try to make him remember her, not with the Grid’s fabric itself constantly changing to lend to an easy capture.

He twisted and set her down on her feet without missing a step. Glancing around, he couldn’t see any place for her to get off on her own path, or for him to take a different path. He watched as this program- why did she seem familiar?? - continued her mad dash for survival. 

“I’m not waiting for you. It’s up to you to keep up.”

He increased his speed. There were other programs up ahead, opportunists who were attempting to keep themselves alive and free from infection by submitting to the whims of this strange corruption and attacking the runners who refused. He pulled his disc off his back, and split it into two. He wasn’t about to go down without a fight.

He gritted his teeth as he stared them down and readied his aim, all while continuing his movement.

“I fight... FOR THE USERS!” It was the one thing he held on to. The one bit of his memory that never completely faded. And it was what kept him running.

So I discovered the app/site QuizUp today. And I didn’t find a good TRON quiz with more than 7 questions, the minimum. So I made one. This has 22 questions and counting. I challenge you all. This has questions from all parts of the TRON universe.

1. Boxleitner’s obvious, but who was the second Babylon Five cast member in the 1982 film? (Peter Jurassik played Crom in the Tron film, and Londo Mollari in B5)

2. Which three actors have played three different roles in the franchise? (David Warner played Dillinger, Sark, and Master Control. Jeff Bridges played Kevin Flynn, Clu 1 and Clu 2. Cindy Morgan played Lora Baines-Bradley, Yori, and Ma3a)

3. What was the name Ram’s User was credited as in the 1982 film? (Popcorn Guy. In the ARG, he was given the “proper” name of Roy Kleinburg)

4. In Tron 2.0 what is Mercury’s chosen weapon? (The Rod Primitive)

5. Which of these is not a weapon class in Tron 2.0: Ball, Rod, Bit, or Mesh? (Bit)

6. In Tron: Ghost in the Machine, the trickster rabbit called himself this. (Clarence)

So I discovered the app/site QuizUp today. And I didn’t find a good TRON quiz with more than 7 questions, the minimum. So I made one. This has 22 questions and counting. I challenge you all. This has questions from all parts of the TRON universe.

Disney’s TRON was disqualified for a Best Visual Effects award because the Academy believed that it “cheated” by using a computer. No kidding! 

I’m such a bit-brain. Here I am, showing pics of new additions to my collection, when I haven’t even shared my collection yet. So here it is, in all its glory. Here’s the list.

Ultimate Tron Experience Blu-Ray Combo Set (kinda hidden behind the classic TRON Art print it comes with)

Tron: The Original Classic 2 disc dvd

Tron: Legacy Blu-Ray combo pack

Tron novelization by Brian Daley

Tron: Legacy Junior novelization adapted by Alice Alfonsi

Tron 2.0 (unfortunately missing Disc Two, if anyone has a spare I would love it. However, I do have it on Steam so it runs)

Tron: Evolution collectors edition

Tron soundtrack by Wendy Carlos on vinyl

The Story Of Tron on vinyl

Tron: Original Movie Adaptation trade paperback

Tron: Betrayal trade paperback

Tron: Ghost in the Machine trade paperback

Sam Flynn’s Deluxe Identity Disc (sans stand, I got most of these off of eBay)

Sam Flynn’s Identity Disc (the toy frisbee one)

Tron Classic Identity Dish (google it. Seriously.)

Disney Infinity 3.0 Sam Flynn figure

Disney Infinity 3.0 Quorra figure (I also purchased the digital editions in 2.0)

Sam Flynn vs. Rinzler minis, two different ones

Rinzler core 3 ¾" figure

Quorra core 3 ¾" figure

Deluxe Rinzler figure (missing one disc, if anyone has a spare….)

Jet Bradley figure

Thorne figure

Tron: Legacy disc logo pin from Disneyland

Sam Flynn’s Lightcycle 4GB flash drive

Kevin Flynn’s Lightcycle 8gb flash drive

A little plastic ball that looks like Bit that I found someplace.

A blue neon clock I bought specifically because it reminded me of Tron.

Not pictured is my soundtrack collection, because it is digital:

Tron: Legacy (and I actually collected all the officially released tracks. It took some work)

Tron

Tron: Legacy: R3C0NF1GUR3D

Tron: Uprising

Priority One: The music of Tron (by Stemage, look it up)

Two tracks from Dconstructed, a Disney remix album

Grid Knights, a Tron inspired album

Tron 2.0 soundtrack, painstakingly compiled myself

Tron: Evolution soundtrack (available as a free download, go find it!)

Tron: Uprising: Hero EP (bonus Uprising tracks from Joseph Trapanese’s Facebook page)

Tron: RUN/r soundtrack

In addition, I also own RUN/r Ultimate edition, and all of Tron: Uprising digitally.

So I’ve been posting every now and again about my computer that I built and how I’m upgrading it (mainly to run TRON: RUN/r better). After putting in a new housing development with wider streets for my programs (read: Solid State Drive for faster read/write times), I decided my Grid needed a name.

So meet Kythera. I named her based off of the Antikythera Machine, discovered near Antikythera, Greece. The Antikythera machine is an ancient analog computer, used to make calculations for ship navigation. It was incredibly accurate.

So Thorne, the self-proclaimed Master User infected his way into my Tron collection.

Not a bad action figure. 13 points of articulation, elbows, shoulders, head, knees, and legs. The joints are SUPER tight at first, and his left arm hasn’t been moved much because I’m afraid to break it. But for the most part it feels pretty solid. Nice and heavy.

So happy this is on the wall above my computer. So, so happy.