Retroboy

Title: Retroboy

Category: TRON

Author: Sakura123 (weber_dubois22)

Rating: T

Characters: Jethro Bradley, Sam Flynn, Clu, Rinzler

Summary: [AU] Legacy/2.0 (Subroutine 'verse). "Once upon a time there was a boy named Jet who lived in a world of computers."

Written: 4/10/2011

Completed: 4/10/2011

Disclaimer: Tron/Tron 2.0/Tron: Legacy and all things related are property of Steven Lisberger, Bonnie MacBird and Walt Disney Studios (and some other guys I'm probably forgetting but can't care to remember).

Author's Note: Another entry into the "Shuffle Meme" challenge, focusing purely on Jet Bradley and his relationships. This time I'm using all the songs from the Chemical Brothers EP, "Further", which I highly recommend you listen to for this particular tale (it's so boss). Oh, Chemical Brothers, why did I forget how awesome you were? Most of this is based within the storyline of my multi-chapter story, "Subroutine", but canonical details are subject change as I haven't gotten quite this far in that particular story yet (I just needed to get these ideas out of my head). Apologies for any errors. I'll correct them when I can.

Don't Think - Chemical Brothers

Self-defense was not something Jet was extremely versed in. He spent the better half of his young adult life under the impression he would never need it despite who his affiliation with Sam Flynn. When Sam got into a fight, Jet typically stayed out of the way if he could, or simply suffered a black eye for wanting to defend his childhood friend. He doesn't start to take an interest in self-defense until his girlfriend "accidentally" laughs at the realization that she can overpower him in a playful struggle and make him beg "uncle" when she pulls his arm back far enough to break it.

Apologizing, she suggests the self-defense class she's been going down somewhere not far from the arcade. Jet hesitates at first, unable to remove his pride from the equation altogether. "I don't need self-defense classes, I can fight just fine," Was his feeble argument. A week before he enters a nightmarish hell that its occupants (or rather Kevin Flynn) call "the Grid", he finally swallowed his pride whole and signed up for a class. He learns all the rudimentary, basic offense/defense moves, despite his rationale, he can't but help but feel a little empowered by the whole experience. He is a badass.

But it doesn't surprise Jet, that, out of the two of them (himself and Sam), he's the one that ends up receiving the bloody nose, the fracture in his arm that resembles shattered bits of data and the colorful bruises on his face.

He should've taken that class earlier.

Wonders of the Deep - Chemical Brothers

Jet really doesn't acknowledge the fact that he's the older of the two until his godfather vanishes into the deep. His father perhaps devotes a little too much time to dealing with ENCOM and trying to help Sam cope, becomes a tad absentminded in regards to his own son's welfare, but Jet does his best to be there for Sam when he's wanted. The kid is miserable, he won't talk, he hardly eats, he spends most of his time staring out the window, waiting for the man on the Ducati to appear, ready to waste the day away in his arcade. It's gotten so bad that he won't even play with his TRON action figures (they sit discarded in the closet, a testament to Sammy's anger).

In the solitude of his bedroom, Jet wonders how exactly to console the friend he thinks of as a brother, unsure if the physical/verbal comfort, like hugs or reassurances, that Lora offers them both would be welcome from someone like him. A hand on the shoulder, the ruffle of curls or the occasional name calling is all Jet feels allowed to give Sam. He gets annoyed, angry even, when Jet asks "are you okay, Sam?" or if he wants anything when he goes for something to snack on.

Dealing with Sam in the state that he's in now reminds him of a trip wire. You won't see it when it snaps, but you'll certainly feel the explosion.

Escape Velocity - Chemical Brothers

Lightcycles terrify him. The speed is almost too much for his heart to handle. The transparent surface makes for tricky navigation; he tries to follow Sam's lead as best he can as they avoid Clu's gang of cheating bikers. The light ribbons prove a tricky thing to avoid, he's nearly collided with three, and his arms are trembling to point of rattling the handle bars.

The nameless sheep to the slaughter separate in an attempt to survive on their own and one by one, their eradicated with merciless force by the opposing team. Blue bits of data scatter and explode in flashes of light that remind the Jet of nightclub lights, the excited roar of the crowd intensifies the demise of the nameless programs in a way chills him to the bone. Jet feels the blood leave everyplace except his arms and legs, he's not sure where it's gone, but it's making him nauseous as hell.

They had to endure three rounds of this and survive?

Distracted by the flickering bits on the smooth arena floor, he doesn't see Sam and the final nameless program (he likes to call him "Singer") split up, and goes in a completely different direction. Jet turns to face the road ahead of him just as a yellow light ribbon appears out of nowhere, illuminating his vision.

"Oh, sh-" He swerves to the side and catches the brunt of the wall's force with the wheels of his vehicle, light fills his senses and the world tumbles out of focus. Storm clouds mix with lights, crowds blur with the arena surface until he hits the ground, completely winded by the ambush. "-it." Somewhere over his head, he hears Clu's gleeful laughter, mocking his failure.

"Unknown Player 2, disqualified. Prepare for deresolution."

Swoon - Chemical Brothers

Quorra is an infectious personality, there's no other way of putting it. She smiles and laughs at his sarcasm with no shame, she plays DDR like a pro despite only being in the real world for two weeks. Eva doesn't appreciate the fact that she lets herself in, ruins their private time and spends hours upon hours playing video games, shouting loudly at the screen in triumph, even when she looses.

In fact, he's sure Sam doesn't appreciate all the time Quorra spends with him, but Jet doesn't feel the need to reassure his friend that Quorra isn't his type, cute as she is.

To Jet, Quorra's the little sister he never had or wanted, but adores all the same. Everything's a new experience to her, he's taking every advantage to introduce to her things before anyone else.

He's terrified of Ferris wheels and roller coasters, but he's willing ride at least one of them to give her that thrilling experience. He'll regret it later on, but it's worth it for the smile on Quorra's face.

Snow - Chemical Brothers

Jet is constantly reminding himself that the woman standing before him is a program and therefore no more real than the mainframe that he's somehow come to be on. She's a collection of zeros and ones come together to create the facsimile of a woman he's never met before in the real world.

She is not real.

While she seems human enough in the presence of other programs, she becomes robotic in his presence.

She answers his questions in regards to system with sterile precision, there's no emotion, no inflection in the words she uses, she's confused on more than one occasion by his humor and general attempts at conversation not having anything to do with the Grid or her function as a Siren.

Is she afraid of him?

He follows her through the paths of the illuminated city, away from the Clu's forces and anyone in favor of the way the moronic program doppelganger is running the place. He's a virtual ghost in the machine, but he knows he'll have to come out sooner or later.

Clu has his father, Sam is somewhere with another program that busted him out of the arena, Flynn is somewhere alive in the system, fighting the good fight of defeat. Everything he cares about is scattered about, dangling from a hook like bait, waiting to reel him in. He wants to go to after his dad, but the female program refuses to let him out of her sight. It's her duty to protect him, she tells him.

And it's with a mere touch to his own circuitry that, despite the mantra that rattles in his head, he knows he feels something for Mercury, whether he acknowledges her existence as real or not.

Another World - Chemical Brothers

There's a disconnect between himself and the real world now and he wonders if he's going insane. He knows, physically knows, that what he experienced was real (his arm isn't working as properly as it should after getting it reformatted. The muscles clench up, sometimes it doesn't respond for as long as fifteen minutes, but x-rays show there isn't a single fracture or bruise to cause this sort of behavior), but his mind wants to call it a dream.

A Wonderfully horrific experience of a dream. Alan, Sam and Quorra appear to adjust to the transition fairly well, preoccupying themselves with business at ENCOM or something else entirely. His views his work in a completely different light now whenever he works on character models. He wonders if he has a program working on the other side of the screen, making everything he creates a reality for millions to play with.

The color of the sun, the taste of food takes on a whole new meaning after experiencing a world with little or no natural light, and having no desire to eat or drink to maintain strength. He spends hours upon hours sitting in Flynn's old workspace, staring at code on the computer screen, wondering if Mercury is the same as she was in his dreams or someone else entirely.

Jet does his best to maintain what he was before this entire ordeal, ignoring the looks of concern he gets from both his parents whenever he visits them. He changes the subject whenever Sam is more forthcoming about knowing what's bothering with him, however, he respects him enough not to push the subject when he blocks him (Jet knows that won't last long though).

Quorra seems understand the ordeal he's going through and talks to him about how the Grid used to be before Clu went bonkers. It's a small comfort, but better than nothing.

Horse Power - Chemical Brothers

Rinzler was not his father, Jet acknowledged this without hesitation. He was a corrupt program, a malicious facsimile that killed without question and was equally ruthless in a fight. Programs from all over the grid feared him, and if Jet had any good sense, he would too. Rinzler was everything his father wasn't, however, it was the face, frozen in that particular period of a time he wasn't technically present to witness until much later on, that kept any of that good sense from developing.

Jet didn't experience fear when he stared into the ice blue eyes of Rinzler, just the odd sense of respect, loathing and loyalty awarded only to his parents, pops in particular. Anger urged him to be upset over the fact that the program wiped the floor with Sam, gave him absolutely no chance of winning. It urged him to attack the sentinel, but Jet couldn't lift a finger against him.

That's my father, his heart would tell him. I can't attack my father. Rinzler would study the petrified state of his body before launching his own assault. The program showed him even less mercy than he did Sam, halting only when he saw blood or Clu stopped him.

Clu was amused by this, under the impression that Jet was too thick to tell the real thing and the doppelganger apart, but it was principle of the thing that stopped him. Once he got over that, attacking Rinzler would be no problem.

K+D+B - Chemical Brothers

Sam sat down next Jet, a grin on his face. "I've got an idea,"

"Wonderful, let's hope it doesn't land us in this place again," Jet muttered sourly. Sam ignored the bitter comment and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket, he raised it directly into Jet's line of sight so he couldn't ignore it. Jet pretended to stare off into nothing through the paper, jaw locked in stubborn defiance.

"C'mon, it's not gonna kill you to look at," Sam chuckled, waving the paper in his face. He was completely too at ease in this box, it annoyed Jet to no end. "You know how much trouble I'm going to be in when my father gets here?"

"Alan's not going to do anything drastic, Jet, calm down," Sam lowered the paper from his face, frowning in disappointment. "I told you didn't have come with."

"I realize that, Sam," Jet nearly snapped. "But someone had to keep you out of trouble."

Jet felt his cheeks flush with anger when Sam laughed.

"Well, you failed in that rega-" Sam's sentence trailed of at the sound of the outer gates opening. Jet bit the inside of his mouth in dread as he listened to the voice of the arresting officer followed by the exasperated, husky voice of his father. Alan appeared on the other side of the gate, disapproval written all over his face.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6-

"Jet, your mother and I are very disappointed in you." And there would more of that once he was released. "You too, Sam."

Both Sam and Jet slouched on the concrete seat of their temporary jail cell, knowing they were done for.

Dissolve - Chemical Brothers

Jet was seven years old when he experienced his first motorcycle ride. He was playing another round of Space Paranoids when Flynn had asked, "Hey, Jet, whadya say to a ride on the Cati?" He remembered pausing, taken aback by the out of the blue question.

Nevertheless, he agreed, excited at the prospect of riding on something motorized without four doors and wheels. "Now don't tell your folks about this, okay? They'd have my hide if they found out," Flynn had a way of being parental without sounding like a jerk. He appreciated the fact that he was treated like an equal on some level by the older man. Jet nodded. "I won't, I promise!"

Flynn grinned in satisfaction and handed him a helmet. "Here, put this on and hold tight." Jet did as he was told, he readjusted the straps so that the helmet would slide too much down on his head and blind him. He climbed onto the back of the seat and held onto Kevin as the bike pulled away from the curb.

It wasn't the most pleasant or comfortable experience, they didn't go too far from the arcade, but Jet treasured the experience nonetheless.

Pourquoi - Chemical Brothers

It happened all the time.

Everytime his parents would get ticks to a baseball game, they would end up debating over where in the stadium to sit if they found vacant seats. Alan would hesitate on acting on the desire to get closer to the bottom, while Lora would jump at any chance to avoid sitting anywhere near the nosebleed seats.

All the while, Jet sat on his father's shoulders, sucking away at his sprite, not terribly concerned with where they "sat" at the present, as he had a pretty cool view of the game from where he was.

(FIN)