Tron Legacy - It's Your Call - Initiate Sequence (7 page)
Read Tron Legacy - It's Your Call - Initiate Sequence Online
Authors: Carla Jablonski
Tags: #Fiction - Young Adult
Q
uorra speeds toward an enormous mountain. You clench your teeth as she aims straight for it, and you release your white-knuckled grip on your armrests as a hidden door slides open. She drives inside.
You blink, trying to adjust your eyes to the dark tunnel. You're not sure if she's navigating by memory or if the car is doing it for her. Either way, you come safely to a stop soon enough.
Quorra guides you to a platform which rises up into a large dark room. The far wall is made almost entirely of glass. You step out and pause on the threshold, trying to take it all in.
You may have arrived inside a mountain, but the elevator brought you up to one of its dramatic ledges. A vast landscape spreads out before you. The city twinkles in the distance, occasionally flashing with light surges. You can almost feel its energy pulsing. But this tranquil room has the feeling of a sanctuary.
As your eyes adjust to the low light you realize a man is sitting on the floor meditating. You can't believe what you're seeing: a translucent stream of data and equations seems to be coursing through him!
“We have a guest,” Quorra announces.
The man slowly rises from the floor and turns around. As he does, the floor around him illuminates and you can see his face.
You gasp.
S
oon Quorra calls you to dinner, and you sit down to a feast. You stick to safe topics. You comment on the vintage Light Cycle your dad has parked in the corner of the room. It seems to be displayed as a work of art, not something that gets much use. After more small talk Flynn finally looks you in the eye.
“I guess you have a lot of questions, Sam,” he says.
You return his gaze just as directly. “Actually just one.”
Your father takes a deep breath. “Why I never came home.”
He pushes up from the table and crosses to a fireplace. “Those nights when I went to the officeâ¦I'm sure you've figured out by now I was coming here. I had discovered a way to bring a human form into digital space. And a portal that would allow me to get back out.”
“Amazing,” you say.
“Yeahâ¦it really was,” your father says, a dreamy look on his face. “Time works differently here,” he continues, focusing again. “You'd think I had been gone an hour when weeks would pass here.” He pokes at the burning logs. “But I couldn't stay here all the time. I needed helpers.”
“Tron,” you say. “And Clu.”
He turns and smiles at you. “You remember all those bedtime stories.”
“I thought you were just making it all up,” you tell him. “But you were really telling me about your days at âthe office.'”
“Exactly.”
Y
ou manage to yank the disc from your suit and fling it at your opponent.
He somersaults over the arcing disc, then slams his disc to the ground. It drives into the panel underneath you, shattering the spot you stand on.
“Yah!” you cry as you drop down and frantically clutch the edges of the hole. You dangle for a moment. “Fine. If that's how you want to play ⦔
You pull yourself back up onto the game platform and instantly roll to avoid another whirring disc.
Your combatant sprints toward you, and you steal a move from his playbook. You hurl your disc at his feet. The panels under him shatter and he plunges down, down, down, screaming all the way.
You stay crouched, shaken by the terrible toll of victory. Slowly you rise, glad that at least it's over. That's when you see a platform heading your way. It carries the victor of another match and quickly attaches to your platform.
You groan. These are elimination rounds! Each winner of these first matches has to fight the other winners.
“Wait!” you cry. “Time! Can I get a time-out?”
Unfortunately, you knew the answer before you even asked the question. A big, fat no.
T
he room pulsates with sound and light. You're mesmerized by the hundreds of peopleâprogramsâgyrating to the vibe of the DJs. Every type imaginable is crowded onto the dance floor: beautiful women, thugs, slackers.
You stiffen as Gem leads you past a cluster of booths where sentries sip energy drinks and flirt with the pretty girls sitting among them.
“Relax,” Gem says. “They're too busy to notice you.”
She brings you to a heavily guarded booth. You hear a high-pitched cackle from a man wearing a silvery white suit. His hair is a similar silvery blond color. In one hand he brandishes a translucent cane.
“That's Castor,” Gem says, nodding toward the guy. “If you want to speak to Zuse, you have to go through him.”
You and Gem approach the booth.
“Have a sense of humor, Bartik,” Castor says to the tough-looking program sitting with him.
“I didn't come here for entertainment,” Bartik growls. “It's time. We can all feel it. The boy is on the Grid. He's spurred hope.”
Your ears prick up. Is he talking about you? Castor lets out a bored sigh. “And you wish me to ask Zuse to rally the troops. Stir the masses. Am I right?”
Y
ou have no choiceâit's kill or be killed. You pull out your disc and face the Light Cycle barreling down at you. At least Clu is wearing his visor. It would be too weird to fling a lethal weapon at a guy with your father's face.
Suddenly a new vehicle vaults off a ramp from below and thunders onto the Grid. It looks like a souped-up dune buggy. It swerves ahead of Clu, leaving a fat ribbon of light in its wake. It whips around you, building a light-wall shield. Is it trapping you or saving you?
Clu can't change direction in time and slams into the wall!
He flies off his bike and flips right over you, slamming onto the hard glassy tarmac. The spectators gasp, and you hold your breath.
No, he doesn't derezz. The fight will continue.
The vehicle skids to a halt beside you and the canopy flips open, revealing a masked driver.
“Get in,” the driver growls.
The crowd surrounding you is stomping and screaming. They can't wait to watch you battle Clu in hand-to-hand combat. But who is this driver? And what will happen if you get into that souped-up vehicle?
If you decide you're safer if you stay out of the car,
If you decide to take your chances with the masked driver,
T
his will be our first user since our liberation!” Jarvis continues.
Liberation? What's he talking about?
“Better still, this user also happens to go by the name of Flynn!”
Now the programs all start to boo. Somehow this has to do with your father. You wish you could connect it all together. You have a feeling your life may depend on it.
“So, what to do? What does this user deserve? Might I suggest, perhaps, the challenge of the Grid?”
Now the audience stomps along with the cheers and claps.
“On this very special occasion, who best to battle this singular opponent? Perhaps one who has some experience in these matters.” You thought the crowd couldn't get any louder; you're wrong. They go wild when Clu emerges from the throne ship.
Jarvis makes a sweeping gesture toward Clu. “Oh, yes, indeed! Your liberator! The one who vanquished the tyranny of the user those many cycles beforeâClu!”
Clu smirks at you. “So sorry about your dad, kiddo.”
Your mind reels. From what they're saying it seems as if Clu and this whole crowd thought of your dad as some kind of oppressor. And that he was destroyed. This doesn't look good.