Read Tron Legacy - It's Your Call - Initiate Sequence Online
Authors: Carla Jablonski
Tags: #Fiction - Young Adult
Tron Legacy - It's Your Call - Initiate Sequence (9 page)
Y
ou continue into the city. The farther you go, the more apprehensive you become. There's something oppressive about the placeâand the few people you see on the streets seem furtive, as if they're hiding from something. Or someone.
Alex must feel it, too. “M-maybe we should go back and check out the stadiums,” he says nervously. “We don't have to get to the light.”
“We're almost there,” you say. “Might as well see what it is.”
You arrive at the source of the lightâthe base of an enormous skyscraper. You walk through the door and realize there's an elevator. You push a button, and up you go.
Alex clutches your arm as the door opens revealing an incredible party in full swing.
People of every description crowd the dance floor. DJs spin thumping beats. Colored lights whirl and flicker, making it hard to see. And beyond the booths, bar, and patrons you can see the amazing skyline through the club's floor-to-ceiling windows.
“I thought we'd find something a lot cooler,” Alex complains. “You know, like aliens or spaceships or something.”
You try not to laugh. “Hey, we only just got here,” you say. “We still could.”
“Just a bunch of grown-ups,” Alex grumbles. “Boring.”
“Give it a chance,” you say.
You push him in front of you through the crowd toward the bar. Maybe some juice drink with a fancy straw in it will make him happy.
Then you hear something that stops you dead in your tracks.
Y
our father turns to gaze out the window.
“We were building a whole new world,” he says wistfully.
“And then something amazing happened. New beings emerged.
I didn't invent them. They just evolved! Real individualsânot
simply programs.”
“I called them ISOsâIsomorphic algorithm programs,” your father goes on.
“So what happened?” you ask.
“Clu happened,” your father answers flatly. He faces you, his expression full of pain. “What I saw as a miracle, he saw as a virus in the system. Imperfection. I had programmed him to help create a perfect system, to shut down errors.” He shrugs. “Individuality is a threat to such a mind-set.”
You start to understand. “Clu thought you'd lost the vision when you welcomed these new kinds of beings. To him they were bad mutations. Computer viruses.”
“Exactly,” your dad confirms.
“What did he do?” you ask.
He gazes out the window again. “He managed a coup. Nearly killed me. And his next act was the elimination of the new beingsâthe ISOs.”
Y
ou're brought to a box-shaped hangar and placed in restraints. People huddle in groups around you, but you're too stunned to attempt speech. Instead, you gaze down through the transparent floor.
You watch the scene below as the Recognizer floats through an enormous cityscape. Spires jut miles up into the blinking blue sky. The scale is huge and makes the gargantuan Recognizer seem tiny by comparison. A pulsing blue energy flickers between the buildings and along the gridâshaped pattern of the city sectors.
“He actually did it,” you murmur. You now understand exactly what you are looking atâa fully realized world created by the computer-programmingâgenius mind of your father.
When you tear your eyes away from the dark, pulsating view, overwhelmed, you notice a young guy staring at you. “Does the name Kevin Flynn mean anything to you?” you ask the kid.
“Keep quiet if you want to live,” he whispers.
Not the reaction you were hoping forâ¦
You hear muttering beside you. A sweaty, nervous-looking dude is rubbing his hands over and over. “Not the games, not the games, not the games,” he's chanting. You turn to a man standing on your other side. “What's his problem?” you ask. He turns to look at you and you stumble backward. Half of his face is gone!
S
ure, why not? You hit
Y
.
A blue flash scorches the room, momentarily blinding you.
You feel around, trying to shut the machine down. None of the
switches do anything.
Finally the little blue dots stop swarming in front of you. You look at the machine. Dead.
“Well, this was useful,” you grumble. “Thanks a lot, Alan.” You trot back up the stairs and out of the arcade.
A big gust of wind makes the door shut behind you with a loud slam. In the distance you see jagged blue lightning sear the sky. Rain starts to fall, and you shove your hands deeper into your jacket pockets. The area seems even more deserted than when you arrivedâif that's possible.
A fog has settled in, obscuring the store windows and signs. Just a blank grayness that feels oppressive. You look forward to sprawling on your sofa with some hot cider and Marv snoozing on your feet, keeping them warm. You arrive at the streetlamp where you locked your bike.
It's gone.
T
he three of you retreat down the stairs to the middle of the
ship. You hide among several large cargo containers.
“What did you see?” you ask your father.
“A Recognizer,” he tells you grimly. “And then several more.
Like a fleet.”
There's a sudden shudder. You and the others brace yourselves against the jerky motions of the solar sailer as it sharply changes course. You peer out a window and see that you're being drawn into an enormous cave. The ship's sails fold back into its body as it prepares to dock.
“What's happening?” you ask.
“A new course,” your father says. “This is no longer a nonstop ride to the Portal.”
Now what do you do?
Do you abandon ship? This could make you more vulnerable but could also keep you from being trapped inside that cave.
TURN TO PAGE 49
.Or do you stay aboard to find out what's going on?
C
lu grips his baton with both hands. He sprints forward and leaps into the air. As he does, the baton transforms into a Light Cycle!
“So that's what this is for!” you cry, waving the baton.
You grin as you hold out the baton, preparing. “Now, this I can do!” You run and jump. A Light Cycle forms. You revel in the power surging beneath you.
Then you rememberâthis is a ride to the death.
You study Clu as the green and blue riders glide onto the humming grid. Your eyes widen. The Light Cycles leave colored walls behind them, like trails.
A cycling Sentry is hot on the tail of the purple rider. It zooms in front of him, then zigzags back and forth, creating a light wall that blocks the purple player. Unable to change course in time, the purple program slams into the wall, derezzing into thousands of tiny cubes.
The light walls are lethal, you realize.
Clu shoots down to the level below and decapitates the blue player with his disc.
Whoa. This guy means business. You have to focus.
Two Sentries sandwich you between them. You surge out toward an off-ramp. It's a high-risk maneuver but one you've done on regular freeways before. One of the Sentries tries to emulate your move but can't. He derezzes in a churning wipeout on the Grid. “Score!” you cheer.
T
here are already dozens of solar sailers on the deck of the
huge ship.
“Let's get out of here,” you say.
“Yeah,” your dad agrees. He nods to the crates. “We don't want to be here when they start unloading these guys.”
You scurry along the ramp leading to the dock and keep low, hoping you won't be noticed in all the activity.
“This way.” Your father leads you quickly along the edges of the deck and up a spiral staircase. You sneak onto a catwalk, high above the deck of the Rectifier. You can see hundreds of programsâmaybe thousandsâstanding below. Then you see Clu approaching a podium. A wave of cheers greets him.
He smiles broadly as he addresses the throng. “Together, we have achieved a great many things. We've built a new world. We've rid it of its imperfections. And we rid it of the false deity who sought to enslave us: Kevin Flynn.”
This is so bizarre. There's Cluâan exact replica of your fatherâa younger version of your father, sure, but still your father. And he's declaring himself as the enemy! If this is weird for you, you can only imagine how it must be for your dad. Clu went from being creation to partner to enemy.
