Tron: Deliverance

OVERLOAD DETECTED

He only had a fraction of a nano for regret when he realized that Tron fully intended the fall the entire height of the building. Beck gathered his frame for the impact, rolling when he jolted onto the base code below. He felt a score of damage run up his right leg. He popped to standing and kept running, blinking the errors away.

He had bigger problems.

The street was an absolute mess of cubes. Every color imaginable lay in shattered pieces on the ground. His core heaved at the clinking remains under his feet. Across the carnage, a writhing mass of programs covered the open space in front of the command hub. Only light lines were visible in the smoke that filled the area. The Mod's battle rigs had done their job too well. The laser fire left a choking smog to cling to the base code.

It was nearly impossible to tell what was going on. Tron never slowed, his eyes a bit unfocused. It was that look he got when he was operating more from passive sensing than from optical data. The security monitor's face went extra taut, and he drew both discs in a single motion. His helmet snapped into place.

Beck drew his discs as well. Trusting Tron's sensors more than his own eyes at this point.

"Tesler's at the center. Get ready to breach the line" Tron's voice came sharp through his filters. Beck took two bounds then jumped, kicking an orange-lined program in the head.

The first few fell easily. Despite their orange lines, they weren't Black Guards. Most didn't even have their helmets up or discs drawn. They came at the Renegade with bare hands and empty faces. They moved in a solid mass, acting more like an obstacle than anything else.

He punched, kicked, shoved.

This was almost too easy. Individually, they were slow and hardly put up any sort of resistance.

But they just kept coming.

Why weren't they fighting back properly?

"Beck!" Tron's tight yell accompanied the monitor grabbing him by the arm and pulling hard. The Renegade stumbled, barely missing the screaming blast of a laser that passed so close he felt the energy heat his armor.

He only had a moment to register the shattered remains of the programs he had been fighting before Tron grabbed him by the back of the neck and shoved them both to the ground. Three enormous blasts went over their heads. Screeches turned to static, and they knelt in piles of orange cubes where there had once been a horde of programs.

Beck looked for the source of the blast. There, in the center of the writhing mass stood Tesler. His right arm configured into a laser cannon charged with blinding orange light.

"More Renegades. I got lucky this cycle" The General said with half a smile. The cannon whined and he fired again.

Beck dove out of the way, rolling into a crouch. His visor met Tron's blank one, the security monitor nodded. In sync, they each rushed Tesler.

The General managed two more shots, both of them going wide as he split his attention between two targets. He reared back and shoved an arm in Beck's direction. Just what the Renegade was hoping for.

He slid beneath the arm, cutting it cleanly between the coils. From the corner of his vision he saw Tron descend like a shadow, bringing one disc down on the cannon, shattering it. The other went for Tesler's neck. Mid-slide, the Renegade sliced at Tesler's leg, hoping to knock him to his knees.

"Futile" Tesler's grating voice reached Beck's audio. Then an orange flash blanked everything out. Sheer energy jolted through his frame and he was rolling away. Error messages cluttering his vision as he crashed to a stop.