Tron: Deliverance

...REWRITING...

Tron let the query run in his mind for a moment.

"All he ever said was 'Youre the best security program I ever met man' but" he looked up to the ceiling in thought "It seemed like he wanted someone who already knew him to help him build. A friend maybe? A sounding board? Though it was at times contrary to my programming. He was always insistent that I voice any objections I had with his plans. He almost wanted to be contradicted. No program he had written would ever dare. That is until......." Tron broke off. They all knew who had ultimately disagreed with Flynn and his vision.

"Already knew him?" Jet picked up on the phrase with surprise "How did you know him?"

"I met him in the old system" Tron said blankly, like it was obvious.

Then, surprisingly, both Jet and Alan- One flinched in their chairs. The older man nearly knocking the discs of his lap. Tron, without deciding to, propped up on his elbows, ready to spring into a fight. To find what was hurting them. He cast his sensors out, looking for the threat. He very nearly snatched one of his discs from Alan-One's hands before he thought better of it.

"What is it Alan-One?" He asked urgently.

Allan-One rubbed the side of his head, with the other hand he reached towards Tron's chest and began to press him back down.

"Your little announcement surprised my wife, who apparently came back online without telling anyone"

Tron narrowed his eyes with confusion.

Alan-One, familiar enough with his own face to read it easily, started to explain.

"We realized that the risk of another user coming into the Grid and getting stuck here was far too great. So, aside from coming in as a group. We also have a failsafe on the outside. Lora and Roy have a direct link to us" Alan gestured towards his temple "they can hear what we say and they're watching the Grid from the outside. If anything happens that we ultimately can't handle, they can pull us out. We won't use that option though. If they try to pull us out when we're not exiting through the I/O port, it will probably fracture the Grid irreparably" Alan- One finally managed to get Tron relaxed again. Even that small motion upward had ramped up his processes again and made his vision dim slightly.

Tron nodded at Alan-Ones explanation.

"Also, please call me Alan. It took me the longest time to get Quorra to stop calling me 'User Alan-One'" Alan-one softened his request with a wry half smile.

"Very well....Alan" Tron said hesitantly. Flynn had never been one to stand on ceremony and had always insisted his programs just call him Flynn. Tron supposed his own creator must be similar in that regard.

Alan-One rubbed his temple again and coughed a laugh.

"Lora wants to know what exactly you mean by meeting Flynn in the old system. I believe she has had some suspicions about how Flynn discovered that her digitizing technology could transmit an entire human inside a system" Alan-One turned back the the discs in his lap, not abandoning his task even as he gestured for Tron to answer the question.

Tron suddenly had the sense that he might be getting Flynn into some trouble by telling this story. Pain shot through his processes. But what did it matter if Flynn was gone?

"You probably remember...Alan when you wrote me for the old system. How the MCP had a stranglehold on the whole thing. How you tasked me to destroy the MCP" Alan-One nodded.

"I heard that part of the story. Somehow Flynn got past the MCP and found proof that Dillenger had been stealing his games and taking credit for other people's work" Jet cut in, levity back in his tone. It sounded like this was a tale he knew well.