Tron: Deliverance

COUNTDOWN.......

Paige didn't have time to do more than a diagnostic on herself. Didn't have time for a patch either. That fight with Algol had left her battered with critical failures creeping much too close to her core. Those injuries meant she was currently walking at the same pace as Jet. She tried not to let that hurt her pride. But well, walking directly next to Jet meant she could smack him to make him keep his voice down.

Unfortunately the bit-brained User didn't understand the term 'quiet'.

"Are we close Steve?" He asked, full volume.

Paige let out a strangled hiss and slapped a hand over his mouth.

"YES" the bit responded, appropriately muted.

Paige gave Jet a hard glare. "If you make noise one more time I'm breaking your other foot"

"Aren't you a medic?" He responded in a still too loud whisper.

"Former medic, and former soldier. Which means I can break every part of your code while naming it" she hissed through her teeth.

Able's exhausted whisper came from behind them "Keep moving you two"

They made it a few halls down before the bit stopped at an intersection of two halls. Paige gripped Jet's arm and forced him behind her, a finger on her lips. She ghosted up to the corner and risked a peek beyond the corner. At the end of the hall there was a data terminal, with a dark-cloaked figure typing into it furiously. His back to them.

She felt for her disc, then jumped into the corridor. Three long strides and she was on him, elbow swinging on the juncture between head and neck. Her strike was just about to land, when he slid away. She followed through into a roll.

The figure drew a disc, quiet as a shadow. She blocked a strike, then another. He was hard to track, not a light line in sight save for the glow under his hood. Running, she planted a foot on the wall and jumped, swinging around into a headlock.

He drove backwards, crushing her against the wall, sending pain signals flashing through her still sparking injuries.

"Paige!" Jet yelped.

"NONONONONONONONONONO" the bit shrilled. It zoomed into the corridor, flashing a bright, dangerous red. It grew an extra long spike and stabbed itself, directly into the program's chest. He stiffened, Paige's medic functions read critical failures, systems derezzing. He crumbled to cubes and she crumpled to the floor with the lack of resistance.

She sat for a moment, stunned into silence, the program's black cloak spread across her legs, full of cubes. She blinked down at it, rezzed clothing usually disintegrated when the program lost integrity. The cloak sticking around was strange.

"Steve!" Jet said in a scandalized wail "What the heck was that dude!? I didn't know you were a murder-bot"

"YES" the bit responded, somehow more monotone than usual.

"The bit helped and now we have access to the terminal you needed, stop gawking" Able harrumphed, nudging Jet into the corridor.

"OK, OK I'm moving. I guess Steve didn't look like the violent type is all" Jet muttered, sliding up to the data terminal and calling up the interface.

Paige got to her feet and brushed off stray cubes. She could have killed that program herself, but she was trying very hard not to. Renegade code and all that. So much for her effort. She gave the bit an annoyed glare "I had that handled you know"

The bit was silent for a moment "...NO" it responded, then zipped up to Jet's elbow, buzzing in circles around him.

"Alright, how do you actually plan to get into Cyrus's systems?" Able asked, propping an shoulder beside the terminal, looking like he needed a rest-cycle.