Tron: Deliverance

GAMES CONTINUE

Alan hustled through the entrance to the Coliseum, his hood up, Zed and Mara directly in front of him. they made a beeline for the stand sections nearest to the arena floor. It would be crowded, but they had to take that risk. Alan didn't particularly like having only his hood to hide his features. But it would have to do. He simply hadn't had the time to make a camouflage subroutine strong enough to cover his face entirely. The good news was, the programs around him seemed far more interested in the games than looking at an old program gliding in the shadow of two mechanics.

They moved quickly through the press and made it into the stands section. He hadn't been to very many sports events. He had taken Jet to some major league football and baseball games when the he was younger, but this was just so much bigger. It felt like every program in the city had to be there. Many of the attendees looked excited to see the games. But Alan saw more than a few unhappy and even scared faces as they pressed through the crowd.

"All programs report to the stands. Disc Wars will soon commence" The Grid's disembodied voice intoned.

"Dyson definitely wanted a big audience huh?" Zed said over the general babble of the crowd.

"Hey that's good for us. Since he called for all programs not on critical assignment to come here, it means that the guards couldn't check us on the way in" Mara said a little more quietly. She was right, while black guards with the broad shoulder armor lined the walls. The programs outnumbered them a hundred to one. Though Alan wasn't a fan of large crowds he figured that if they had to run, the guards would struggle to follow them due to the sheer number of bodies.

They broke through the entrance to the arena itself and Alan stifled a flinch at the sheer noise and overload of visual input. There were just so many programs here.

The two mechanics plunged into the crowd with a care in the world. The old programmer was tempted to grab one of them by the wrist so that he wouldn't lose them. They marched down the broad steps that broke up the bench-like seats. They climbed down about a hundred rows, making it to the thickest mass of programs that took up the seating nearest the coliseum floor.

"Yikes, its standing room only down here" Zed complained. He and Mara shoved themselves into the mass of programs and Alan followed suit. They managed to squish themselves into the crowd. Alan felt like he was getting touched from all directions. He clenched his teeth at the discomfort but didn't want to complain. They needed to be this close for the plan to work.

He looked down into the arena.

There was already a light cycle battle running. According to Gem, the games had been going all day. But Jet wasn't set to compete until nearer to the end. When their team snuck into the city, Gem hailed them when they got close enough for the short-range comm to work. She had given them a quick rundown of what was happening in the Coliseum and how she had rigged the match ups so that Paige would be able to protect Jet and Hilda. She had gone silent after that. But Alan had no doubt she was still somewhere in the structure.

He watched a blue-white cycle splash into the light wall of an orange cycle. It shattered into cubes and liquid energy. The crowd cheered. Alan and the two programs did not.

"Combatant seven, derezzed. Advantage Guard" The Grid said.

Alan watched an orange cycle get derezzed and another blue one before he had to look away. This was barbaric. How could these programs enjoy watching their own people die like this? According to Mara, conscripts for the games were generally programs that had broken minor ordinances. Sometimes they were even rounded up randomly to fill in the game cards. He looked around him into the faces of the programs in the stands and felt his body tense.