TRON: Renewal

[Lentrax]

"Greetings, Programs! You have been chosen for an exciting new project! One that if successful will revolutionize our world forever!"

***

Century City. In the heart of Los Angeles, the glittering Encom Tower dominates the area. With the amazing successes in the security, videogame, and operating system markets, Encom has almost no competition it cannot overwhelm. But behind the glittering glass and shiny façade, a crisis is getting underway. A server, deep in the secure storage facility hums to life, fans coughing out a cloud of dust that is filtered out of the server room by hyper powerful ventilation systems. The dust blows off of decades old circuits, and old pathways come to life with the hum of electricity.

As the old hard drive begins spinning, the sound of the clattering patters, sounds vaguely like laughter, echoing inside the server room. diodes along the side of the server light up revealing a series of words along the side of the case.

ENCOM program 212653. Designation: MasterChess. DO NOT ACTIVATE.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

She sits down in an innocuous coffee house, a large latte in one hand, her laptop bag in the other. One of the great things about coffee-house wifi was that it was so rarely secured, and it made a great starting point. She slips her laptop out of its case and boots it up while sipping from the coffee. The rumors floating around some of the security forums had piqued her interest, and after bouncing her connection through 27 different routers in a half-dozen nations, she fires up one of her own system-breaking programs. This one she'd dubbed ERIS, after the Greek goddess of discord. It should provide enough chaos on the firewall to allow her to find an open port she could slip in through, and start grabbing some data. If Encom really was discontinuing the TRON security program, it was her duty, she feels, to ensure that the source code wasn't lost forever. Time enough to poke at the various other rumors after she'd secured a copy of this code for herself and for the world-- it would end up on several hacktivist sites later in the day, assuming she could get through the digital barriers in a timely fashion.

[CrimsonKnight]

Under the bright afternoon sun, one of the city's numerous busses nudges its way forward through the thickening traffic. Onboard, a red-haired young woman in a white security guard uniform is alternating between glancing at her watch every five seconds and peering at the traffic ahead with a growing look of panic on her face.

Crap crap crap, I am toast if I'm late again. Gonna murder whoever stole my bike! That frigging Copeland is just waiting for an excuse to can my ass. Not like the lazy prick isn't twice as bad, but unlike him I don't have twenty years of brown-nosing to protect me. Shiiit...

The bus comes to a complete stop amidst a flotilla of idle cars, and Jess notices the cause ahead.

Road work?! Oh f**k me. And I've only got nine minutes... hell with it. It's only five or six blocks, I can make this.

Jess stands, shoulders her backpack, and pushes the rear doors open, ignoring the driver's aggravated squawking about not being at a bus stop. She takes off at a dead sprint down the block, weaving her way amongst the slower moving pedestrians, food stands, trashcans, and light poles, darting across the first street barely a second before the light changes against her and continuing down the sidewalk.

Seven minutes and 42 seconds after exiting the bus, a now sweaty and out of breath Jess runs into the lobby and makes a beeline for the stairs leading down to the central security station in the basement. The front desk guard glances at her, then at the clock, then smirks at her before returning to his smartphone. Down the stairs, now with only seconds to spare, she squeezes between two of her coworkers, practically kicks the door to the security office open, and slides her badge through the time in/out reader... precisely five seconds before the hour turns over and the shift officially starts.

"Goddamn... bus... goddamn... bike thief..."

Her nemesis of a supervisor looks through his tacky horn rim glasses at his panting subordinate suck air noisily with a frown on his face.

"I don't even want to know. Get yourself presentable and then head up to the marketing department. VP managed to leave his badge in his office and now can't get back in the building."

[The_Admiral]

James calmly walks into the Encom building as a red haired security guard rushed past him. shrugging it off he walked up to the front desk guard, flashing his badge and announcing,"FBI, Special Agent James Lucas, I called in earlier."

[theskorpionking]

Zeke's day started like all of his other days did. He woke up next to his girlfriend. He made her breakfast, which set off the smoke alarms in his apartment. His day took a turn for the worse when his bike wouldn't start. Lucky for him Dani hadn't left yet and she gave him a ride to Encom, where she also had worked. He still remembered the day he ran into her and fell, spilling his speech he was to give all over the floor. She offered to help him pick it up, and they hit it off from there. He considered himself very lucky, most game programmers would give almost anything to get a girl like Dani. And the best thing about her, she was a gamer. Her favorite game was Tron, which made Zeke love her even more. Zeke was never one for PDA's, but at the elevators, in front of his programmer buddies, she gave him a kiss. His friends didn't have much time to give him crap, they had a meeting to attend. That was another blow to Zeke's day. He found out that Encom was going to discontinue the Tron security program. It was one of the best programs out there, Zeke himself used it.

His day got a bit better with a lunch date with Dani. He was in a rush to get back to work so he ran to get to the bank of elevators. He saw one of the elevator doors closing, "Hey, hold the elevator!" He yelled. Someone had the common courtesy to hold the doors. After he got in, he saw someone who looked like they were having a bad day too. "Heya Jess. Late again, huh?" He said with a goofy smile on his face.

[Lentrax]

"Yes, Agent Lucas. Your office called ahead. You will need to register your firearm with security and have it tagged by the EIMP before you will be allowed to enter the building."

The security officer who is nearby passes over what looks like a pane of glass. "Just sign or initial the bottom, then swipe across to reach the next page. While you are doing that, I can tag your firearm for the EIMP."

*****
"Oh, and Hawthorne? Once you're done getting the VP into his office, you head home and get sack time. You're working Ghost Town until further notice."
Ghost Town is the local parlance for the graveyard shift.

*****

ERIS returns after a few minutes. Far quicker than you expected. Upon accessing the data you find a mysterious extension in the program. You create a quick Virtual machine, and use that to open the extension in a sterile environment. A window appears and text begins typing across your screen.
Nice try, but I don't think this program is going to be enough to get into that system. Tron won't let you...
_>

[The_Admiral]

James sighed as he retrieved his gun, removing the magazine, he handed it over to the security guard for tagging. Retrieving the pane, he signed his name and complied with the instruction, flipping over to the next page.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

It wasn't uncommon to run into another hacker while doing some work, but it was uncommon for one of her programs to be defeated so quickly, and her curiosity was piqued. She starts a barrage of three different cracking programs exploring multiple avenues into the system and then hops back to the VM, responding to the waiting prompt.

_> You're good. Furies here. You are?

[dethkruzer]

His eyes slowly fluttered open, his consciousness aroused from slumber by the sound of a ringtone. He turns his head on the scrambled up blanket that had served as a pillow, his gaze wandering over to an old digital clock. Suddenly realizing just how late it was, and that the noise was in fact his phone, Timothy Sprang up, before hurriedly rushing over to his phone.

"This is Timothy... Yes... Yes... Yeah, why do you think I've been trying to get a hold of you for the last 48 hours?" He spoke into the phone, his tone slightly aggravated. He walks over to his little kitchen corner, flickin on the coffee maker as he continues. "Which is why I've been calling you constantly. The part manufacturer had some problem one the assembly line, and as a result the whole damn case of motherboards is nothing more then a box of expensive paper weights."

Even as he talked, he was already going about his morning business, stickin bread in the toaster, getting some cream and sugar out, pulling on some socks. "Something with the soldering was messed up, made the damn thing burn themselves out after a few minutes... No... No, that won't be an issue. I contacted the manufacturer and they immediately got a new case out to me via a courier service, I got them last night."

Wiggling on a shirt, he then walks over to the toaster,and takes a jar of honey out from the cabinet. "No, it won't take long. I'll just do a few more checks to make sure these things won't go on the fritz. once that's done I'll go rent a van, pack the CPUs up, and deliver them personally." He explained, in a calm a tone as possible while smearing some honey onto the bread. "Wonderful. Thank you so much for your understanding. I'll talk to you later in a few hours." He said in a faked cheery tone, before ending the call.

"Stupid ENCOM higher-ups, think they own frickin' everything." He grumbled to himself before sinking his teeth into the honeyed toast.

[CrimsonKnight]

Jess nods wordlessly to her supervisor and leaves the office. She punches the call button for the elevator and spends the time waiting for it to arrive silently cursing him out with a violent eloquence over the sudden shift change. Once it arrives, she enters and hits the button for the 18th floor.

What a bunch of BS. Graveyard shift on zero notice? I ought to file a complaint, not that anyone will listen or give a crap. Damn it, this is gonna ruin my weekend.

The elevator stops at the ground floor to admit a couple of ENCOM employees, and as the door closes she hears a familiar voice shouting to hold the elevator. She smirks and physically holds the doors open long enough for Zeke to squeeze between them.

"Ha ha, funny, I definitely needed the reminder. *sigh* Sorry, not having a good day so far. Some jerk cut the safety chain and stole my bike and traffic was so heavy the bus was moving too slow so I kinda had to sprint the last five or six blocks just to make it on time. Which I did, thank you very much, even if it was too close for comfort. Ugh, not that it mattered since I'm getting shifted to Ghost Town now. So you at least having a better day? One of us has to."

[theskorpionking]

"Stole your bike, huh?" Zeke asked. "My bike wouldn't even start this morning. But my day got better, then it got worse." He saw the look on Jess' face. "Dani gave me a kiss in front of my team." He explained. "Then at this mornings meeting I found out that the company's discontinuing the TRON program. That's, like, the worlds best security program, and they're discontinuing it. But, the lunch date with Dani made it all better." Zeke sighed, "Then I forgot to tell her that I was going to be here all night finishing up the latest level in the game I'm working on. So, there's a good chance I'll be seeing you on my way out."

[Lentrax]

_> Oh, just a collection of bits on the grid. Its who YOU are, and what you are doing that has me curious. Why Encom?

On timing. It is currently earlier in the day for you than it is for the others.
***
The elevator dings, and Jess and Zeke both get out. Although they have to go separate ways when the doors open, the coincidence is a bit uncanny. Zeke has nothing but an afternoon of programming a game to look forward to, though after...

Zeke manages to slog to his cubicle with only a small amount of harassment about his little display earlier.
Computer Use to figure how much time it takes you to program today.

Jess heads down and finds Adrian Friedman the Executive VP of the entertainment division at Encom waiting outside his office. When he sees you coming, he puts his phone in his suit pocket an waits impatiently for you to finish walking the distance to his office door.

Finally. It certainly took you long enough. I doubt you could have taken longer had you taken a bus from the lobby.

i have been told the pic does not show.
It is Alan Rickmanhttp://www.theplace2.ru/archive/alan_rickman/img/Sense_and_Sensibilit-2.jpg

***

Timothy finally gets around to getting to the office, though it is now late afternoon. His pile of work seems to keep adding up, and now another ticket has come in for a data request from a server that does not seem to be on the network. Your list shows the server to be present in the building, though it does not seem to be connected. Odd.

***

James just happened to be on the next elevator, his finger feeling cramped from jamming it against that tablet so many times. As he did so, he reviewed his case file information.
The VP of the Wntertainment division sent a missive to the FBI about security breaches on some of his departments computers. His employees have since been receiving mysterious messages from the so called "Living Algorithm" some of them including details on secret projects that point to some kind of industrial espionage. He said he would only say more to an actual agent, so they sent you.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

Fine, be that way, she thinks to herself. There are more than a few hackers who want to remain anonymous, and she can respect that, even if it's raised her curiosity even more.

_>What rock have you been hiding under? It's been all over social media; TRON is being discontinued. That program is too valuable to let some Encom corporate suit take it out of circulation. The source code for TRON should be free for all. And it will be, once I get in.

Granted, it might not be a hacker. It could be an FBI agent, and it could be a sting, but she was confident enough in her abilities to avoid getting nabbed by the feds. It briefly went through her mind that she stumbled onto the prank 'Living Algorithm' she'd been hearing chatter about, but she discounted that as unlikely.

[The_Admiral]

As he went over and over what he knew, this "Living Algorithm" was like most old school hackers, no demands, no profit, just pure showing off.

Halfway to the office, he closes the case file, tucking it in his armpit and strolling towards it, arriving at the door, he sees the red headed security guard who ran past him earlier and, who he could only assume to be the VP of the Entertainment division.

Nodding at him, James says "good morning sir, something wrong with the lock?"

[Lentrax]

_>And so you take it upon yourself to save him. How noble. A few moments later, just before you can begin to type a response, the typing starts again.

Do you think you have what it takes to save Tron?

***

Inside, if you please, Agent.

After Jess opens the door, and let's both of you into the lavishly furnished office, Adrian sits behind a massive glass paneled desk. As he sits down you soon find it is a highly sophisticated computer terminal, complete with built in holographic projectors, which you find out when three dimensional renderings of models appear. A light bike appears, constructing itself on the desktop and begins rotating slightly.

Adrian waves his hand use above the display in a backhanded sweeping motion, and the models fly off to the side and disappear.

You are here about my concerns, yes? Yes, I thought you were. In this very building there are spies. I know this, and accept it, it's just a part of doing business. But this, "Living Algorithm" business has my staff in a state of disorder. What is more, the damn thing keeps telling us exactly what is going to go missing, and then, despite our best efforts to secure the data, it is gone the next morning.usually accompanied by a message displaying some... Shall we say, cheek?

[The_Admiral]

"In all honesty, this Living Algorithm, sounds like an old school hacker. But, I need you to clarify on one thing, removed? As in deleted from the servers?" James replied, hoping it was just this man's lack of knowledge on computers.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

She thought it odd that this mysterious hacker would refer to a program as 'him', but opted not to mention that point.

_>Sure. TRON and any other data that needs to be free. Encom's secure, but no security is unbeatable.

[CrimsonKnight]

Back in the elevator, Jess looks at her watch and groans.

Back in... seven hours and change. Hell, no way I'm catching some z's now without sleeping pills. Well, might as well go do something. Library's close, at least I can knock out my homework, and thank god all my classes are online right now. After that, get something to eat, maybe catch a movie, spend a hour or two working out, and then punch through the shift with a ton of coffee. Not ideal, but sounds like a plan I guess.

After grabbing her backpack from her locker, she changes out of her uniform and heads for the exit, flipping off the desk guard when he laughs at her leaving so soon.

[Lentrax]

I do not believe I said deleted or removed, did I? No, I said the data is missing. As in vanished without any trace, no log, no server event. Simply gone.

_> Some security is. Well then if you really are serious about it, you will probably want to be in front of an Encom terminal.

[The_Admiral]

"...but that's impossible, unless, may I have access to your servers?" James asks.

[Lentrax]

Nothing is impossible, Agent Lucas. They merely have a high degree of improbability. As for access to the servers, you can request permission from security who will process the request through the EIMP. It is ultimately up to her whether or not you can enter the servers or not.

[The_Admiral]

"I know, I've done something with similar results before, back at MIT as a drunken prank, involved swapping the physical servers out and hacking the logs." He replied.

Getting up, he continued, "Thank you for your time, where is the security office?"

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

_>Yeah, right. Like they'll just let me walk in. Physical access isn't impossible to get, but remote hacks are a lot easier.

She's starting to get more suspicious. This sounds a lot like a federal agent staging a trap, to her mind.

[Lentrax]

Jut go the Lobby, and ask the guard there, he will get you the authorization form. But the process will take some time.


_> ... And if I told you that you are an employee at Encom? And have been for three years now? What would that kind of access be worth to you?

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

_>Quite a lot. What did you have in mind? Bank accounts? Cash? Corporate usernames and passwords?

She'll string whoever it is along a bit longer, at least, before trying to pin down if this is some kind of a trap.

[The_Admiral]

"Thank you for your time, I can wait." James replies to the VP, leaving the office and slowly making his way to the front desk.

Arriving there, he asks the security guard, "FBI, I would like the authorisation form for access to the servers please." never hurt to be polite.

[Lentrax]

_> Oh, nothing so drastic. Just some information. Specifically another program.


"Of course. Here is the form," the guard at the front desk says, handing over another glass tablet. "It'll take some time for the EIMP to get the data collated and sent back to us with your access card code, assuming you get approved of course..."



Zeke happily whiles his time away programming. A little bit of a tricky part with collision algorithms on the new light bikes, but he is pretty confident that when it goes to beta everything will be fine. The sun is beginning to set when he gets a message from Dani. "I'm bored. When are you going to be ready to go?"

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

_>What program?

She activates a tracer program, attempting to determine from where this person is contacting her.

[The_Admiral]

"Thanks, I've got a question, is everything digital in this building?" he asks as he does the paperwork, swiping through and signing as he read.

[Lentrax]

The program begins its happy jaunt from your laptop. It travels from LA up to Seattle, to Las Vegas, to a computer across the street from you...

_> Tsk, tsk. Oh not until you accept... But I will ask you a question, by way of a hint.

Miami, London, Helsinki, Belgrade...

What do you know about AI?

And the program terminates in... Well, that can't be right... It stopped in your computer.



"Yeah, it pretty much is now. Went that way a few years back right after Sam Flynn took over as CEO. He is the one who approved the EIMP project, and he personally oversaw its installation. Everything goes through her, so everything needs to be machine readable."

[The_Admiral]

"well, that makes it harder to confirm my main theory...." he mutters, handing back the tablet to the guard.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

Curious. she thinks, seeing where the tracer ends.

_>Before I accept or decline, what proof can you offer that you're not a fed looking to nab yourself a hacktivist?

[Lentrax]

_> If it helps, I could provide you with the name and picture of the FBI agent who is going to be at Encom later today. Or the security guard I had transferred over to nights so she won't know the evening and night workers? I doubt I have anything to prove to you I am not a federal agent. Just my word as bits on your screen.

[dethkruzer]

"... The PCs are now downloading and installing OS updates. They all seem going to be well for now, the extra intranet and power grid load from hooking them up seems to be as expected. I'l go and give them a check in..." He talks into the phone he has nestled up between his cheek and shoulder, as he sets a few folders down onto his desk, before noticing a strange slip of paper.

"Minute? Hang on." he then continues into the phone, setting it down for a moment to check through his list, his confusion only growing. "Look, something came up. I've got some weird data request slip, but something doesn't add up. I think I'll go and ask Suzy from the archives if she might be able to help. I'll look at how those new PCs are doing ASAP. Call me again if something urgent comes up." He said into the phone, closing the call before he could get a reply. Tapping the screen a few times, he lifted the phone to his ear again. As the call was being connected, he picked up a clipboard, latched the ticket onto it, and started walking over to the archives as he got an answer. "Hello? Suzy? Hope I didn't catch you at a bad time... Great, great. Listen, I was hoping you could look something up for me. I got this data request for a server. It's in the building, but not connected to the network... No, no need, I'm coming over right now... Yeah, sure, so the server the ticket is asking for is marked..." His chatter continued as he continued on his way.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

_>If you include the reason the agent is there and a copy of my supposed employee file, so I know what I'm supposed to be doing, you have a deal. I'm in.

[Lentrax]

"Agent Lucas? The paperwork cleared. EIMP has given you access to the server cluster. It's going to be up on 23."


_> His name is Lucas. He is actually there investigating me. Fortunately, they won't ever find me, because, as far as their laws are concerned, I do not exist. But Encom is more suspicious, and they let Tron loose on the mainframe. But I have to find Beck and get him out of there. And you are a systems administrator for Encom, with full server access.

A file appears on your desktop, History. It details several small achievements for your new identity, which uses your first name for convenience.

Please, find Beck. Get him out of the system.

[The_Admiral]

"Thanks, have a good day." Lucas replied, taking the elevator up to the server cluster. There, he plops himself near the closest port, retrieving his laptop from his bag, booting it up and opening up a virtual box with a fully manual authentication for the LAN link to feed into. Nothing was going to be fed into his baby without him noticing.

Connecting it to the server cluster, he began searching the logs for any signs of tampering.


USE COMPUTER!
[roll0]

[Lentrax]

"Excuse me? Just who are you, and what are doing with my servers?" The voice comes from a thirty something man wearing jeans and a faded shirt that says "No. I will not fix your computer." His brown ponytail just barely comes down to his neck, and he has a neatly trimmed beard.

Your laptop begins accessing data, but there is a small hiccup in connecting to the network. This may take a bit longer than you originally thought.

[The_Admiral]

"...Oh, James Lucas, FBI, I have permission to comb the servers, I'm assuming you're tech support?" he says, flashing his badge at the man.

[Lentrax]

"I'm one of the system admins, I know these babies like they were my own."

The guy actual grabs your badge, pulls the card out of its sleeve and holds it up to the light. He moves it back and forth, watching the various holographic seals embossed in the plastic.

"Well, seems real enough to me, I guess. I mean I am sure the EIMP cleared you or you wouldn't be able to get this far, but I like to double check for myself. Too many people would love to claim to be FBI just to get in here, you know? So, what are you looking for anyway?"

[The_Admiral]

Well, first things first, may I have my badge back?

As soon as he receives his badge, he continues, ".....Well, Apparently the VP of the Entertainment division claims there are files that are just gone, no logs, nothing, I was starting at making sure it's really gone, not just one of the tricks used to make it seem gone, if it is really gone, it seems very similar to one of the drunken pranks a bunch of my friends I pulled at MIT....."

[Lentrax]

"Drunken pranks are always the best kind, but look man, since this **** has started happening, we've been creating backups and images of the event logs at hourly intervals. Even those show nothing. Whoever is behind this crap knows what they are doing."

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

_>Who is Beck?

[Lentrax]

He is one of many. Programs created by Encom to replace Tron, though they all lack his... Elegance. Please, get him off of that server. I promise, if you can retrieve Beck, all will be made clear to you.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

"Furies"

_>Very well. I'll be there tonight.

[Lentrax]

April 26, 2023
Los Angeles, California
8:22 PM

Evening comes to Los Angeles, and the sun begins setting through the fog.

The night shift for security guards at Encom Tower begins in half an hour, and Jess finds her way to work impeded by an accident on the road leading to Century City. She should have enough time to make it to work, maybe even get a quick shower in at the gym facilities if she hustles (Con DC 12).

Zeke and Dani are on their way home when Dani reaches into her purse for her cell phone as it starts ringing. Instead she pulls out an identity disk. She immediately makes a face. "This isn't mine. Zeke, would you mind if we went back to get my disc?"

Lucas has been trying to find anything he can about these mysterious reports, and was about to give up when he saw a message appear in the last directory. Just appear, no traderoute, no log, just appears. Like it wrote itself. It's a text file, and all it says is "Digital Media transference protocol 01. Lab 2."

Furies finds herself feeling nervous as she approaches the exterior of the tower. If the Algorithm was right, then the badge she was able to print out and code will let her into the building without any problem. But what if it doesn't? What if she says something to give herself away. The guard at the desk looks up at her as she approaches the doors, the look on his face is serious, but a little tired. Maybe the right word and a smile will get her through. (bluff check)

[The_Admiral]

"......screw it, you win." Lucas exclaims after thinking for a few minutes. Putting his laptop into sleep, he slips it into his bag, gathering up his cables.

He begins making his way to lab 2, hunting it down through the building's directory.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

The young woman approached the building and stopped for just a moment to look up at the tower and collect herself. "That's a big door," she mutters under her breath as she approaches the giant revolving door entrance. She's done this sort of subterfuge before, so she has a handle on the routine, even if she can't shake the feeling that this is some sort of a trap. Still, best face forward and all that.

She swipes the badge where appropriate and gives the guard a friendly, yet somewhat harried, smile. "Joys of the night shift, eh?" she asks.


Taking 10 on the Bluff Check for a 15.

[theskorpionking]

Zeke has a look of awe on his face as he sees what Dani is calling someone else's identity disc. "How on earth did you get an identity disc? And one of this caliber? Zeke looks at the disc, going over every minute detail of it. "Yup, this is the real deal. Well not really real, but a very good made piece of awesomeness. I heard rumors about the higher ups, and I mean like Sam Flynn, giving these out as awards for people who have gone above and beyond their duty. I think I love you even more now. This is so cool!" He ran his free hand through his hair, "Uh, sorry. I geeked out for a minute. Yeah, we can go back and get yours."

[Lentrax]

It only takes James a minute or two to find the lab floor. And he sees with luck it is only two floors down. Hardly worth the wait for an elevator.

****

"Yeah, sure." The guard says, his attention goes back to a small television set up on the lower surface of the desk. He appears to be very invested in the outcome because as you hear the doors close, you hear a, "Damn! I have fifty bucks riding on those a**holes!"

In the elevator you double check that you are heading to the right floor. 26. The labs. The algorithm said you needed to go to lab two, the Digital Media lab. On your ride up, your nerves settle. A little, the hardest part, getting in, should be over.

****

"Zeke, this is no time to be a geek! This is important. That disc is... Yeah, it was part of a program I was in a couple years back. But this one isn't mine, mine is... Different." This is a tone you have never heard from your girlfriend. She seems almost in a panic, but calms down when you agree to go back to Encom.

"Come on, I left it in the labs. I'm authorized to get in there anytime."

****

Jess gets cleaned up and changed. She even clocks in on time.

She is just going over the security logs when a set of reports comes in. Apparently, five different people are checked in at the Digital Media lab right now. None of them are technicians or scientists. That's very odd. What's going on up there?

****

"What do you mean, transfer it to the Lab server?" With obvious impatience at the late hour of the file transfer, one of Encom's technicians hands Timothy a set of discs.

"Take these with you to the Lab, You'll need them to make a new backup of the system before installing the new parts."

[Lentrax]

Testing Lab 010.

As each of you enter into the clean room your badges are scanned, and you realize you are going to have to sit through tedious training videos.

Hello, Cave Johnson. Here. Agents. Persons of superiors speed, skill and intellect, astronauts, that means I've got my eye on you.

Now, the good news is, that since we got bought out by Encom in the mid nineties, aperture science has managed to tone down the accidental death rate stuff focus. That's right. On average only one member per team should suffer injuries severe enough to slow the team down to 75percent optimal.

Anyway, first test coming up. Pretty simple. It's learning to walk with your team into the portals.mhonestly. Nothing to fear. So long as you all do it together, alright? You're gonna be aces, I lknow it,

[CrimsonKnight]

Jess yawns as she scans her badge through the time-keeper to begin her shift. Definitely gonna need a few pots of coffee to make it through the night. Hope the guys on Ghost Town don't mind the coffee being brewed extra strong.

After getting herself a cup of blessed caffeine to fortify herself, she heads up to the front desk to check in and see if anything important was scheduled for the shift. She soon notices the odd group that all seem to be gathered in the Digital Media Lab. "Huh, that's weird. What's with the party up on 26? Hell with it, might as well check it out. Nothing much else going on at the moment."

The desk guard seems to be too engrossed with a basketball game playing on a small portable TV to acknowledge her, so she shrugs and leaves him to head for the elevators.

Doot doot doot, dum a bam a ram... man, it's much more chill around here at night. Maybe I should see if I can't transfer to this shift permanently. So long as it doesn't mess with my weekends, I could definitely get used to not having people breathing down my neck constantly.

She exits the elevator on the 26th and heads for Digital Media. She sees no one at first, and is about to radio in when she hears noise coming from the clean room. Her security badge gets her through the air-sealed doors, to find the five people she was looking for all watching a video with a voice that seemed very familiar to her.

Who is that? I almost swear I know the actor... Cave Johnson?! Holy crap, is this a Portal video? Is Encom working on a new Portal game?! That's actually pretty cool. Damn, a few of my friends would kill to get a sneak peek like this. Hmm... I suppose no one's gonna miss me if I just hang out here for a couple of minutes. I mean, how often do you get a chance to see something like this? Anyone asks, I was just doing a routine patrol.

She leans up against the wall and keeps watching the video.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

Of all the things she could have possibly expected in the Encom lab, a parody training video from the Portal game series was so far down the list as to not even be on it. She didn't have time for this, and she really didn't want to have to interact with anyone. She glanced about the room looking to see where there were any locations she could connect to the network and get things running. The whole 'Trust me, I'm a sysadmin' routine should be able to excuse her poking about when there's videos to watch, but she needed a spot to connect first and foremost.

[theskorpionking]

"Hey, that was punny." Zeke said with a light laugh. Dani looked at him, "What is punny?" She asked. Zeke sometimes forgot that she had an incredible grasp of the English language, but had only been in the country a relatively short time. "Nothing, never mind. You need to slow down. You won't get your disc back any faster if we get pulled over for speeding." Zeke relaxed his grip on the passenger door as soon as Dani slowed down.

When they arrived at Encom, Dani screeched the car to a stop and got out, leaving the drivers side door wide open and the car running. Zeke reached over and closed the door and turned the car off. He had to run to catch up to her inside. He was going to flash his badge at the guard, but Dani hurried him along. It didn't take long to get to the lab, especially at the panicked pace that Dani was moving at. When he got in, he saw two people that he didn't recognize and one that he had seen around the building on occasion. Then the video started playing, "Oh you have got to be kidding me. Portal, really? I could see my crew doing something like this. I didn't think the lab guys had this kind of a sense of humor." But Dani didn't share Zeke's opinion, she knew something was wrong, "This isn't right. Something is wrong." Zeke grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, "Relax, it's probably someone's idea of a joke. You can deal with them tomorrow." He looked up and gave a nod to Jess as she entered the room.

[Lentrax]

Jenna tries the door out the clean room, but it seems to be locked. At least until the training video is done. Somewhere in the middle of it, a French woman starts freaking out in the room, saying that this is not the way things are supposed to be. Once the video is finished, the door unlocks and the French woman rushes past Jenna and into the lab, frantically searching for something.

Looking for this? the voice comes from the darker shadows of the room. In the shadowy light you can only make out a shadowy figure standing there. Then something in his hands lights up and begins to hum an ominous low tone. This illuminates Friedman's face so you can see that he has been waiting in the shadows. And he isn't alone. Behind him are two tall men dressed in some kind of skintight pleather outfits. Dark mirrored helmets cover the tops of their heads and eyes, so can't see their eyes at all. Red lines glow along the sides of their outfits and along their staves.

https://latimesherocomplex.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/tron4.jpg

I must admit, said Friedman, as he snaps his fingers. The two men move forward menacingly, grabbing Dani by the arms. I expected more from Flynn's protege.

[The_Admiral]

As Cave Johnson popped up on screen, James laughed, either voice actors were out of a job, or he had this hacker in his grasps.

Following in behind Jenna, he sees the two goons grabbing Dani, sighing he exclaims, flashing his badge, "Okay boffers, let her go." placing his computer bag down.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

None of this was at all what she was expecting, and not only was she now in the middle of some bizarre security team shakedown, she also was stuck in the same room with the Fed. Best to just stay silent for now, and let things play out, then get the data she came for when opportunity arose-- which isn't right this moment. She stays out of the line of fire, so to speak, and keeps her head down, letting the Fed and the security team settle their differences.

[theskorpionking]

"Hey let her go!" Zeke yelled. He then did something he never would have done before he met Dani, he rushed the men in black.

[Lentrax]

Stop, Friedman says as he flicks the glowing identity disc up to Dani's neck.

Everyone just calm down. All I want is the girl, the rest of you can leave. Friedman snaps his fingers and the door leading back out from the clean room opens.

I suggest you all leave. Now.

[CrimsonKnight]

It takes Jess a second to realize this is not some live-action stunt by the Marketing Team and that these oddly dressed men, whoever the hell they were, are in fact threatening one of the Encom employees she is supposed to be protecting. Her hand reaches down for the sidearm that she's never drawn before anywhere except at the mandatory biweekly hour on the shooting range and she immediately levels it at Friedman.

"Whoa whoa whoa, hold it creep! Drop the knife, or whatever the hell kind of bladed object it is! You want to do something stupid like this in front of an FBI agent?"

Oh hey, that guy there IS an FBI agent. I didn't even realize until he pulled his badge, what's a Fed doing here in the middle of... NOT. IMPORTANT. RIGHT. NOW. BRAIN. FOCUS.

[theskorpionking]

One of the men in black swung his staff up and Zeke stopped with his chin barely inches away from the glowing end. He backed up a few steps. "I'm sure we can talk about this. I mean, c'mon, your the vp of the entertainment division. What could Dani have possibly done to you?"

[The_Admiral]

"....You may have called in the FBI to investigate whatever has been hacking your systems, but is this a prank or something? If it isn't, you do know kidnapping is a federal crime." James asks, desperate to return to some semblance of sanity.

[Lentrax]

Friedman smiles, a cold, merciless smirk that sends a shiver down your spine. It is inky a crime if the target is an actual person. And I already knew what had been hacking us. I am merely required by my program to follow the appropriate procedure.

"Friedman, you bastard! You won't get away with this! We will be free!"

And with lightning quick speed, Dani's foot flies up in a kick that would put Chuck Norris to shame, striking the disc from Friedman's hands. The disc falls into Dani's outstretched hand and she begins wielding it like a weapon against the staves of the two sentinels. After a quick flurry of blows, one of the sentries dissolves as the disc cuts across the mans chest.

The second sentry presses his attack behind her and lands a blow across the woman's back, but Dani is already on the move again.

"Zeke, I am so sorry, but I have no choice. I love you." She punches down a big red button on the side of what looks like a giant laser cannon sitting atop a pedestal.

Before any of you can react, the world seems to stretch out around you, and you have the sensation of falling through open space. You feel yourself being torn apart, but when you look, you are still whole.

As the world of Encom tower fades around you, you hear Dani's voice come from across the room.

"Find Beck."

[theskorpionking]

"Dani, wait!" Zeke yelled. He ran towards Dani, but he was too late. She had hit the button. The world around him began to fade. He barely heard Dani say, "Find Beck." His last thought had been Who's Beck?

[dethkruzer]

"Alright, will do." Timothy replies, before walking off to the elevator with discs in hand. Pressing the button to call an elevator, he waits for a brief moment. The elevator announces it's arrival with a soft "ping", before the doors slide open. He steps in, pressing the button up to the lab as he goes.

Inside, Timothy could feel a small nudge as the elevator began going up. "Man, I wonder who it was that made a data request from a server that isn't even connected." He think out loud to himself, looking down as if to look at the request ticket, only to realize that he had forgotten his clipboard, and the ticket along with it, at the technicians desk. Silently cursing, he decided he could do what he was sent to do at the labs before retrieving the clipboard.

The elevator finally comes to a halt, and the man steps outside as the doors open. Assuming nothing obstructs his way, he hten heads over to the lab.

I will admit, I have not had the time to follow what has been happening to the other characters, hence why I left the last part so vague.

[Lentrax]

The room you 'awaken' to is dark. Reality asserts itself in your brains slowly, first assuring you that, "Yes, that way is down. And yes, you are on something that supports your weight."

It then begins filling in metaphorical concepts, such abstracts as "It's dark. It feels cold."

Zeke and Jenna, both having played old school text based games when they were younger, both thought at the same time. "It is dark, you are likely to be eaten by a grue."

Only, as soon as you think it is dark, it isn't anymore. Light emerges into being from panels along the ceiling. The entire ceiling, in fact. Even the floor begins to emit light, seemingly only to provide contrast to the walls which remain a pitch black.

the room you find yourselves in is just as large as the one you left at Encom. The same size, shape, even configuration. There are even tables in the same locations as the tables and benches at Encom.

But this isn't Encom Tower. It isn't even close. And the city outside the window is not Los Angeles.

Apparently, you aren't in Kansas anymore.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

She's had enough of this nonsense. There's a federal agent standing not five feet from her, there was that business with the hostage situation, the weird guard guy dissolving, and the freaking dark-and-light show. Maybe Encom was working on some new VR game and she stumbled into it, and maybe there was something more sinister going on. But this is way more than she bargained for, and tron program or no tron program, she was getting out. She could try again later when things weren't so weird. The fake ID would work again just as well in a couple of days.

Jenna surreptitiously, or at least with a reasonable attempt at surreptition, sidles towards the door they all came in, intent on opening it and getting out of there. Even if it looks different now, it should still work the same, she figures.

[Lentrax]

The door does not have a handle on it. Instead, as you approach, it effortlessly slides open.

The hallway outside the room has a black floor, with white ceilings and a slightly dimmer set of walls.

[The_Admiral]

"....Where the **** are we?" James exclaims, pocketing his badge as his hand reaches for his gun, drawing it and pointing it at the ground.

Coming up behind the person making it to the door, he asks "where the hell are we?"

[CrimsonKnight]

While James and Jenna are examining the hallway, Jess' view is drawn to the glowing city of lights outside the window. She is a local L.A. girl born and raised, and she knows instantly that the city outside, with a bewildering kaleidoscope of neon colors and shining lights that she'd never seen anything like it outside of a sci-fi movie, is definitely not Los Angeles.

"Holy sh**... okay, either someone slipped me LSD and I am on one crazy-ass mind trip right now, or somehow we've just done a literal space/time warp. Not really sure which option I prefer at the moment."

[Lentrax]

The female voice comes from the walls, or the ceiling, or maybe it's just there in the room with you. You aren't sure. But it starts talking all the same.

Greetings programs, welcome to the Grid. You will now be directed down the hall to the processing area. panels on the hall lit up with bright blue marks, like so: >>> you watch them mark out a path down the hall and around the corner.

But the elevator bank is just over there, just around the next corner in the opposite direction.

Please follow designated route for identity syncing, program specifications, and route processing. You will also be assigned your central hub, via the switch node relay system. Again, welcome to the Grid.

[theskorpionking]

Zeke sees one of the group heads towards the door. "I...I think we should all stick together. At least for the time being. And where'd Friedman go?" He said, looking around. He even found a way to respond to the FBI agent's and Jess' remarks, "I don't think this is Oz and if this is some kind of acid trip, I'd like to get off please." Then he heard the voice, "No way! The Grid. It can't be. The Grid isn't real."

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

Too late now to not draw attention. Best to just roll with it and keep up appearances. "Some sort of VR game, maybe? Although I wasn't aware Encom was working on one. Not my department."

[theskorpionking]

"But it is my department." Zeke said, taking some offense to what the newcomer had said. "And no, we aren't working on any kind of a VR game. The only Grid I know about is the one that I finished programing today for Tron 3.0. Something is definitely wrong." Zeke gave the woman at the door a once-over. "Sorry, I don't mean any disrespect. You must be new here. I'm Zeke." He extended his hand towards her.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

"Jenna," she says to Zeke, shaking his hand. "Sysadmin on the night shift. If this isn't a game, what is it?" She looks the part, dressed in a 'data angel' T-shirt, jeans, sneakers, and looking like she could have walked out of a hot topic ad, with a couple of eyebrow piercings. To top it off her canvas laptop bag has a Decepticon patch and the words 'bag of holding' embroidered on it.

[dethkruzer]

"What..?" He uttered, as he blinked several times, before blinking again, and again. "The hell?!" His voice rose slightly.

His attention turned to those who were speaking right now, his expression showing a good deal of concern. "Is one of you somehow on top of what the frig is going on right now?" Timothy asked, trying to kep calm.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

"I'm at a loss. Best I can figure is we triggered some sort of simulation, but I haven't heard of anything like this. Honestly, I'm not even sure the people doing the fighting were really real either. Did you see what the guys with the sticks were wearing? You wouldn't even see a getup like that at a rave." Jenna can't keep the nervousness entirely out of her voice, but she hopes that they'll take it for nervousness at the strange goings-on, and not at having a fed with a drawn gun standing right beside her in a place where she's out of her depth. "Unless someone has a better idea, maybe we should just play along with whatever it is for now? And could you put the gun away? You're making me nervous." The last sentence was directed pointedly at the FBI agent.

[The_Admiral]

"This place makes me nervous." he replies, an eyebrow raised.

[theskorpionking]

Zeke couldn't believe what he was hearing. "A...a simulation! Look I get it, you're new here. But we don't have that kind of tech here. And another thing, she was...Dani is real. So's Friedman, as far as I know. Maybe you didn't hear her say that she loved me before she hit that button, but I did. Now I'm gonna do whatever I have to do to get out of here and get back to her. And if it means finding whatever beck is, then that's what I'll do. Now if you'll excuse me." Zeke said as he pushed past Jenna and the FBI agent. He paused briefly, "and I've seen guys dressed like that before at gaming conventions. They're from the Tron games." He started to follow the glowing lines, but changes his mind and heads towards the elevators instead.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

Jenna gestures for the FBI guy to go first, since she doesn't want the gun pointed at her back-- even if he's got it pointed at the ground right now. "Beck's a security program. One of the ones set to replace tron, since it's being decommissioned."

[The_Admiral]

"hold on, let me get my baby first..." he says, stepping back a bit to grab his plain tote bag. That over his shoulder and a ridiculous sight, she moved into the hallway, gun ready.

[Lentrax]

James is unable to find his bag.

Stepping out into the hall, you turn the corner and go to the elevators. As soon as you turn the corner, you see two more of the strange staff wielding, helmeted goons. They cross their staves in front of the elevator door.

Present your discs for identification, programs.

[The_Admiral]

".....Discs? " James exclaims in confusion, eyes narrowing.

[Lentrax]

You will present your discs for scan.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

Still working under the assumption it's some sort of VR simulation, Jenna holds up her Encom ID card. If her mysterious benefactor was as good as she was beginning to think it is, then the card should hold up to any scan. "You mean this?"

[Lentrax]

The sentry on the left looks down at the proffered card.

That is not an identity disc. Failure to present your identity disc is grounds for immediate termination, program. Present your disc for scan.

[theskorpionking]

"We're, uh programs new to the system. We haven't been processed yet." Zeke said, hoping he was telling them what they wanted to hear.

[Lentrax]

This is not a processing area. Report to the processing area. Attempting to leave without an identity disc is grounds for immediate deresolution.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna

"This is reminding me an awful lot of that old Hitchhiker's Guide text adventure game. If you don't do things in the right sequence, you lose. For that matter, there was usually a turn limit as well-- might be best if we just follow it through for now?" She heads back in the direction the arrows were pointing. "You would not believe how complicated it is to get the babelfish in your ear."

[Lentrax]

Going the other way, following the directions on the wall, leads you to a set of double doors.

The inside of this room is enormous. It seems almost to be bigger than the building itself, though that may just be a trick of the light and the curvature of the room.

Along the walls, you note a dozen pods, each of them perhaps large enough for a person. Several grooves are cut into the glowing white panels, outlining what could be drawers.

Programs will stand on designated positions. sets of foot outlines appear glowing a dim white in the black floor. Each set of prints is four feet from each other, and forms a square shape on the floor.

As you each decide to stand where you are directed, a bar of solid light snaps up and over your feet, locking them in place. You find yourself unable to lift your feet or move away from the spot you are standing.

Then the pods begin to open.

[DarkLadyOfTheSith]

Jenna


What the...?! she thinks when she finds herself locked into place. This was getting more and more insane by the minute. "Zeke, was it? Any ideas on how to turn this thing off? Whatever it is."

[theskorpionking]

"No idea." Zeke said, sounding defeated. All he wanted to do was get out of wherever here was and get back to Dani. He had a lot of questions and he hoped that she had the answers. "Maybe if we just play along, they'll let us go."

[Lentrax]

The pods open and from each pod a woman emerges wearing skintight white outfits. There does not seem to be a seam anywhere on the clothing, and the suit continues straight down into the wedge heeled shoes. The step to you, three to a figure.

They hold up their right hands, making a gun sign, then run them down your clothing. You suddenly find your clothing falling to the floor. A band of light snapped into being across Lucas's hand, causing him to cry out in sudden pain. His hand spasms, and the gun falls to the floor atop his clothing, which is then promptly sucked into a confident vacuum hole that appears next to your torn garments. The hole disappears as quickly and quietly as it appeared.

At your feet, the floor moves and undulates, and small feelers start searching around. The feelers seem to all find what they are looking for when they touch your feet. They aren't cold, per sé. Heat doesn't seem to mean anything here. Instead you feel an icy shiver run up your spine. The tendrils latch onto your legs, crawling up your bodies. Behind them, in a rippling wave, you feel an almost spandex-like fabric against your skin.

Most of the women move back at this point, stepping in a mechanical precision backwards into their pods again. There are four women left, one standing each in front of you.

Programs. You will be issued an identity disc. A pedestal rises up in front of each of you, each bearing a black disc. This disc will be a record of your existence. Failure to retain your disc is grounds for immediate deresolution. Everything you do will be imprinted upon your disc.

The women take the disc and move around to your back. You feel them pressing the disc into your back. You see their arms move as they twist the disc, locking it into place behind your back. You then have a very odd sensation. You feel your entire brain accessing everything it has ever contained. Bits and pieces of your life. Maybe your whole life, you don't know, flashes in your eyes.

Synchronization complete, proceed to processing. Good luck, Programs.

[theskorpionking]

Zeke was having a geek-out moment. He had described this kind of scene in early production meetings for the Tron 3.0 game. He had pitched the idea that people from the real world would get transported into the grid and become the hero of the game. Friedman had been quiet for most of the meeting, but then had said, "That's exactly what the Grid needs, more Users running around." Zeke only smiled and said, "Yeah, but those users would pay for the DLC that I have planned." In the end, it didn't matter. Friedman was the VP and his word was law.

He snapped back to the present and began watching as the women neared him. He watched as the did the gun thing, looking around at the others. To his left was Jess, to his right was the new girl, Jenna. He smiled at them, then watched as their clothes fell away. His cheeks went a dark crimson. Then he realized that he too was naked. He quickly covered himself with his hands and stared at the floor. He offered the two ladies on either side of him a apologetic, "Uh, sorry."